My name is Cindy Laguerre and today I would like to write on Mary Fisher speech titled “Whisper of AIDS”. First I would like to give brief background information on Mary Fisher. Known as an artist, author, advocate, and founder of family AIDS network. As an AIDS patient herself while working for the Republican Party, she delivered her speech in 1992 in front of the whole nation. During that same year, she funded the family AIDS network. Throughout the years, she was committed to work with AIDS patience in Africa and continued to be the voice of those with AIDS. Given that Mary was also an artist, she would make jewelry for those individuals in parts of Africa such as Zimbabwe, Rwanda, to help funds with AIDS research.
Mary fisher speech was focused on the facts about HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS has been around from many years starting from the years 1981. In the months in the year 1981, young gay men were being diagnosed with Kaposis sarcoma, which is a rare form of cancer, and pneumocystis carinii, which is a rare form of lung infection. Although a name was not known for this virus that was infected by many, those who were gay were stereotyped and thought to be the only ones able to contract this disease till others started getting infected that weren’t gay nor male. Those with AIDS were treated like animals and looked down at. One example I read of this is of a couple who was evicted by there landlord because they were gay and when they contact the social service employers,
Do you ever feel insecure about your body? You can feel unconfident about yourself because a unforgettable memory in your life.
In the documentary “The Age of AIDS,” FRONTLINE examines the outbreak of AIDS since its first diagnosed case in 1981. The film investigates different medical, political and social environments under AIDS pandemic in the US and worldwide. The film not only focuses on the scientific research and progress in treating the disease, it also looks at the social stigma, government strategies and public campaigns around different countries.
Susan B. Anthony inspired to fight for women’s right while camping against alcohol..along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton also an activist, Anthony and Stanton founded the NWSA . Which helped the two women to go around and produced The Revolution, a weekly publication that lobbied for women’s rights.She also went on saying that if women ever wanted to get reaction men had…only thing stopping them,..having voting rights. An american social reformer and women’s right activist who played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement, also a teacher who aggregate and compare about nature. She gave the “Women’s Rights to the Suffrage” giving outside the jail she was going to be held in, she gave this speech in person in 1873 and her audience were mostly white women that want virtues like men. Also men that wanted to put women in their place and friends of her and fellow citizens. Her main points are that women needed power that men had. Growing up in a quaker household she knew that women needed honor as men just like slaves experience getting their freedom. In Women’s right to suffrage Susan B. Anthony uses tone, reparation,and logos which dematices why women should have equal morality and voting abilities as men.
Fears and misconceptions regarding AIDS began when only the homosexual community contracted it. Therefore, people started to believe that only the homosexuals would get the AIDS and blamed them for the cause of the disease. The public was not in fear until some people who were not homosexuals contracted the disease. It was at this time, that the public’s attitude shifted into the fear that anyone was able to have AIDS; it was a sexually transmitted disease. Many were also deceived by the government’s actions. For example, one woman in the movie began to become sick after a blood transfusion. She always thought that it was due to surgical problems, but actually she had contracted AIDS and the doctors knew but didn’t do anything about it. This also caused panic because, even though the government knew AIDS was spreading around they did not do anything about it.
She begins her speech by saying, “ I would never have asked to be HIV positive, but I believe that in all things there is a purpose; and I stand before you and the nation gladly” (Fisher 1), letting the audience know that she is using her experiences as a sufferer of AIDS to come forwards and speak plainly on the truth of the disease; she took her infection not as a setback, but as motivation to come forward and give a silenced community a voice. She even says that her contraction of AIDS came with more than just a lifetime of struggles; underlying the medical problems lays a “purpose” (Fisher 1)—one which Fisher believes to be activism against the continuation of the spread of AIDS, giving her the identity of a “messenger” (Fisher 3), and, in extension, credibility. Fisher needed this credibility, as her criticism was a “sharp rebuke of her party’s negligence” in the face of the suffering of a group they did not care for, and they may not have listened if they thought she spoke lightly or without reason (Shaw 1). Fisher also challenges the belief that the grief HIV and AIDS leave in their wake generally lies outside the realm of the worries of those who are part of the majority groups largely unaffected by the disease. She tells the Convention that, though they may never have expected to see a heterosexual, married woman speak freely of her diagnosis with
In A Whisper of AIDS, Mary Fisher uses a number of strategies to promote awareness and inform others about AIDS.
“Two hundred thousand Americans are dead or dying” Two hundred thousand Americans, two hundred thousand brothers, friends, loved ones, all fighting a war; this war is not fought in foreign countries, this war is HIV/AIDS (“American Rhetoric: Mary Fisher”). Sadly, Mary Fisher is one of the many victims that are crushed by the heartbreaking diagnostic of being HIV positive, however, this was her alarm to the severity of the virus. As a result, Fisher dedicated her life to spread awareness of HIV and AIDS. In addition to the jaw-dropping speech, Fisher, has dedicated her whole life to the awareness of AIDS, through her store, biographies, non-profitable organizations, and many more. However, “A Whisper of AIDS” is the first domino in her line of work to break the “shroud of silence” known as AIDS (“American Rhetoric: Mary Fisher”).Fisher spoke from the heart, and as well as the mind in “A Whisper of AIDS”, which effectively touched the hearts of many and did exactly what she hoped it would, turned the whisper of the word AIDS into a shout spoken from numerous to prevent fear in the hearts of many. In order to show the dire importance of awareness of HIV/AIDS, Fisher, Effectively uses heartbreaking pathos, strong logos, and persuasive ethos.
The book Speak by Laurie Anderson is a book about how Melinda Sordino overcomes the troubles in her life, and how she learned to speak up for herself. The author uses a lot of archetypes and allusions throughout the book to add a fuller description to the events Melinda had gone through, which will help the readers to better understand what Anderson is trying to tell.
In the beginning of her speech, Fisher includes details and anecdotes that appeal to pathos and help persuade the audience emotionally. The topic of AIDS and HIV has a negative and almost shameful connotation surrounding it, so to combat this and
On August 18 1992, Mary Fisher delivered the Republican National Convention Address in Houston Texas, and with her speech entitled "A Whisper of AIDS," she entered the record books for one of the top 100 most influential speeches of the 20th century. Mary Fisher was a wife, mother, Republican, and was HIV positive; and her speech brought the realities of the AIDS epidemic directly to the people in the audience. And the people in the audience were those who felt that they were the least likely to contract the disease. However, Mary Fisher's stirring speech demonstrated to everyone that AIDS was not a disease that people of a certain sexual orientation, race, or social status contracted, but a disease that threatened all human beings.
Her tone is also stern because she is unrelenting in her topic because she wants to stress how important it is. She is also passionate about the topic because it affects her personally because she is a woman and her rights hold her back from doing anything to affect the anti-slavery movement. The author’s tone serves the purpose because the seriousness shows the importance of the topics that are talked about in the speech such as the anti-slavery movement, and women’s rights.
Attention Getter: About 400,000 people are living with hemophilia, a rare blood disorder that causes blood to clot abnormally. Many of these people also develop HIV and AIDS, an immune deficiency. Even more shocking is the 78 million people living with HIV. All of these conditions are lifelong and fatal. Over 40 million people each year die of HIV or hemophilia. What 's even more terrifying is the amount of misinformation pertaining to these subjects, such as the difference between HIV and AIDs, and the causes of these conditions.
When HIV/AIDS was first known in the United States, people who were affected were dying at a rapid rate as the disease was new to the medical community. There was no treatment and because of that the disease became highly publicized. At the time there were hatred for those who were considered gay. Those who came out and spoke openly about their HIV and AIDS were often being victimized. With the fear and homophobia from society, gay men and women took to the street to demand a government response to AIDS and were influenced to create a national movement.
In the story “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, David Petrakis is the voice melinda does not have. He has the ability to do what she cannot. In one part of the story David stands up to Mr. Neck after he constantly abuses his students and rants about his son not getting a job. This leads to a full scale lawsuit where David claims his right to the first amendment was violated. Melinda felt that David was indirectly standing up for her when he yells at Mr.Neck because he had the ability to say what she never could. Melinda calls david a “hero” and thinks “He says a million things without saying a word. I make a note to study Petrakis. I have never heard a more eloquent silence” (Anderson 57). Melinda looks at David as if he has saved her.
Mary Fisher’s speech entitled “A Whisper of Aids,” is an appeal to the emotional and political moods of the Republican National Conference on August 19, 1992. In this speech she talks about her disease, but unlike most people, who become depressed when they learn about contracting the disease, Mary Fisher stands up and fights for everyone who has AIDS as well as bringing the statics of HIV and AIDS to light. Mary Fisher’s speech can be analyzed from three different standpoints: structure, delivery, and appeal.