I have always admired the tremendous impact of a few well-chosen words … people such as Winston Churchill, JFK and Martin Luther King were excellent examples …
On Aug 20, 1940, Churchill addressed the House of Commons referring to the ongoing efforts of the Royal Air Force crews who were at the time fighting the Battle of Britain, the pivotal air battle with the German Luftwaffe, as Britain was expecting an invasion. Since this famous speech, the British Royal Air Force pilots who fought in the battle have been known as "The Few".
"The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion.
" Never, in the field of human conflict, was so much owed .....by so many to so few.”
I remember feeling the intense emotion in his words. The powerful cadence of his voice. The simple words so powerfully and deliberately delivered. Words that stirred the hearts of the people to resist surrender and the passion to rise against the impossible forces waged against them.
At the same time that Churchill was rallying the troops and the spirits of the people, Vera Lynn, Sweetheart of the Forces, sang of the White Cliffs of Dover and how we'll meet again and reassured us that there would always be an England.
A few well chosen words from Martin Luther King who " had a dream " still resonates throughout the world.
One line that comes into my heart and mind a lot these days is this:
" I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.":
What a sharp contrast to the hatred and message of BLM!
When President Kennedy made his famous speech and said
" Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country "
I wonder how such simple words can be put together into a sentence and made to deliver such power?
A few well chosen words.
Mahatma Ghandi had a few well chosen words.
" There are two days in the year that we can not do anything, yesterday and tomorrow "
Yet his words created a tomorrow that showed our past and present can influence tomorrow.
I compare this with the words we hear in comic opera or the media these days where simplicity is not honoured. Instead, we seem to gravitate to the wordy or verbose that exists for entertainment value.
Yet long lost are the delights of the gifted Gilbert and Sullivan in the Mikado, who used their words to tease and entertain.
It seems that words are used to shock and create drama and intrigue.
I think I prefer it when we had important speeches made by impactive people who spoke the truth, and we left the verbose to the comic opera and the stages of the theatre. Because what we now see masquerading as wisdom is comic theatre.
Mind you, Biden sounds an awful lot like an excerpt from the Mikado:
We know him well,
He cannot tell
Untrue or groundless tales —
He always tries
To utter lies,
And every time he fails.
Behold the Lord High Executioner!
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