"Now I say to you in conclusion, life is hard, at times as hard as crucible steel. It has its bleak and difficult moments. Like the ever-flowing waters of the river, life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons, life has the soothing warmth of its summers and the piercing chill of its winters. But if one will hold on, he will discover that God walks with him, and that God is able to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Eulogy for the Martyred Children"
Today seems like the best possible day to reflect on rhetorical power. A little over a week removed from the violent attack in Tucson, we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Much has been said about the vitriolic rhetoric of our present moment. Violence has certainly permeated our political speech, but this is not all or even primarily what rhetoric is or what it does. The most powerful Rhetoricians who ever lived are men like Dr. King, Gandhi, even St. Paul. Calling them Rhetoricians doesn’t mean they weren’t honest or genuine men. These men meant what they said. Calling them rhetoricians means, rather, that they understood that words have power, that text and context can move the hearts, minds, and feet of the people who encounter them. Rhetoric, like most things, can be moral, immoral, or amoral depending on the intentions of the speaker. Rhetoric matters. Rhetoric works. And in the hands of Dr. King, rhetorical power helped change the minds and relate the experience of generations.
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