Clinton’s Speech
The Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in which more than 150 people lost their lives served as the occasion for William Jefferson Clinton’s speech at the Oklahoma Bombing Memorial Prayer Service Address. Although it is a prayer service address, Clinton never once mentions the word prayer in his speech. Instead he attempts to cheaply inspire the audience by using the tragedy of the bombing as an occasion to talk about a community coming together, how great America is, and how important it is for the legacy of the lost to be lived out in the lives of the living. Full of platitudes by light on actual sentiment, the speech fails to rise above its mawkish pretensions and deliver a satisfying response to the tragedy that had occurred in Oklahoma City just four days prior.
The speech is organized poorly. It begins by acknowledging the audience, the people of Oklahoma City, but quickly wanders off course as though the President were there to talk about how great the state of Oklahoma was and how many fond memories Bill and Hillary had of the place. Clinton even states that he is “honored to be here today to represent the American people” as though by giving the speech at the prayer service he were somehow being recognized for an accomplishment (Clinton 1). The speech gets back on topic in the next section, where Clinton discusses mourning with the victims’ families in the city, but he attempts to collectivize...
Works Cited
Clinton, William J. “Oklahoma Bombing Memorial Prayer Service Address.” AmericanRhetoric.com
Hood, Christopher. The art of the state: Culture, rhetoric, and public management. Oxford University Press, 2000.
Kennedy, John F. “Berlin Speech.” American History. http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/presidents/john-fitzgerald-kennedy/ich-bin-ein-berliner-speech-1963.php
McGee, Michael C. “In search of ‘the people’: A rhetorical alternative.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 61.3 (1975): 235-249.
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