not the first tm speech

this was going to be my first speech, but i canned it...



Public speaking is terrifying for me. On the edge of the abyss…. that’s the image that comes into my mind….staring into a vast, yawning, dark abyss.When I decided to join this organization…and you, kindly, agreed to take me on… the prospect of having to give an opening speech seemed like a distant and remote event. Well, when the stark, ugly reality of this impending moment reared its head….. I panicked a bit….at a loss for an idea, any idea, I Googled “great speeches”

So I’m looking at the search results and I’m thinking now that I can cheat a little bit and use some of these great speeches as maybe a guideline to my speech. …attempt to crowbar the meaning of some of these great speeches into something that applies to me, and to my speech, …

Napoleon Bonaparte’s words have a certain je nes sais quois about them…and I will let him introduce to you the always loyal and always faithful me , through his farewell address.

"Soldiers of my Old Guard: I bid you farewell. For twenty years I have constantly accompanied you on the road to honor and glory. I have sacrificed all of my interests to those of the country. Her happiness was my only thought. Adieu, my friends. Would I could press you all to my heart."

I’ll let the great thespian and politician Ronald Reagan, in Berlin. read from his script and tell you about me, that …. a no nonsense, commie-ass-kicking, NRA card carrying cowboy
"General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity, Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"


And then there is Nelson Mandela…..Lord God I wish I could be one one-thousandth as courageous as Mandela….he sets the bar very high. This is Mandela's statement from the dock at the opening of his defense in the trial….against charges including sabotage, high treason and conspiracy to overthrow the government.

"During my lifetime I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

I am hard-working, relentless and determined…This is Winston Churchill in 1941…
Never give in. Never give in.

"Never, never, never, never--in nothing, great or small, large or petty--never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. "


And then I stumbled onto the ‘I have sinned’ speech,…..

This speech was delivered by President Bill Clinton at the annual White House prayer breakfast to an audience of more than 100 ministers, priests and other religious leaders assembled in the East Room. Bill might be saying “let’s not kid ourselves about who we are…and more importantly, let’s not kid ourselves about who this asshole Kurt Van Hook is either…’


"First, I want to say to all of you that, as you might imagine, I have been on quite a journey these last few weeks to get to the end of this, to the rock bottom truth of where I am. I don't think there is a fancy way to say that I have sinned.
I ask once again to be able to love my neighbor - all my neighbors - as my self, to be an instrument of God's peace; to let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart and, in the end, the work of my hands, be pleasing.
Thank you. God bless you."