Page 163 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

In Their Own Words

Mary Fisher Speaks Out on AIDS

The AIDS virus is not a political creature. It does not care Though I am female and contracted this disease in mar-
whether you are Democratic or Republican; it does not riage and enjoy the warm support of my family, I am one with
ask whether you are black or white, male or female, gay or the lonely gay man sheltering a fl ickering candle from the
straight, young or old. Tonight, I represent an AIDS com- cold wind of his family’s rejection.
munity whose members have been reluctantly drafted from Source: Offi cial Report of the Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth Re-
every segment of American society. publican National Convention, August 19, 1992.
Though I am white and a mother, I am one with a black
infant struggling with tubes in a Philadelphia hospital.

In previous editions we opened this chapter
with the personal stories of people who used
their public speaking skills to help them real-
ize a purpose that they neither expected nor
wanted in their lives. One was Democratic
Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, who was
driven to seek public offi ce as a result of her
husband’s senseless murder and her need to
do something about the availability of semi-
automatic assault rifl es. Still another was Mary
Fisher, a Republican consultant and mother
who became an activist in the campaign
against HIV/AIDS as a result of being infected
with HIV by an unfaithful husband. We add a
new face to the list—that of Patrick Murphy—
an Iraq war veteran who was elected in 2006
to Congress from a seat in Pennsylvania that
had not voted for his party since 1992. As
a soldier, Murphy had patrolled the streets
of Baghdad with the 82nd Airborne and was
awarded a bronze star. As a citizen, Murphy
became disenchanted with the policies of the
administration and narrowly defeated an in-
cumbent member of Congress.
McCarthy, Fisher, and Murphy were each
presented with a set of circumstances which
Mary Fisher, who contracted the HIV virus from her hus- compelled them to speak out against what
band, riveted the 1992 Republican Convention with her they believed were threats to not just their own
speech about AIDS. well-being, but to everyone’s life, liberty, and
pursuit of happiness.
You can read excerpts of speeches by all
three in the boxes labeled “In Their Own Words” in this chapter. The full text of
their speeches can be found in Appendix B.
Their success in overcoming these circumstances and realizing their purpose
depended mightily on their ability to connect with audiences of tremendous di-
versity. Their success in connecting with their audience, moreover, depended on
130 their ability to master the main subject of this chapter: The rhetorical situation.