What Makes a Good Speech or a Speech Good?

    "Four-score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that ALL men are created equal!"  With these words, President Abraham Lincoln began his Gettysburg Address, which is one of the most famous speeches ever given. It wasn't a very long speech, in fact, if was just under three minutes long. The speaker just before Lincoln stood at the podium and talked for over two hours, yet it was the President's short talk that made the history books. So what was it that made that speech stand out? What is it that makes people remember one speech and forget another one?
     Almost one hundred years later, a young Senator from Massachusetts stood on the balcony of the United States Capitol and took the oath of office, the same oath that President Lincoln had taken when he was sworn in. In his inaugural address, President Kennedy stated that the freedom of men came from God and not the government. He issued a warning and a challenge. To the world he said, "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
     To America, he issued the challenge to not ask what the country can do for us, but what we can do for our country, and what we can do together for the freedom of man. He would not live to see his challenge answered.
     Not too long after that a young Baptist minister stood on the steps of the memorial dedicated to Abraham Lincoln and told us that he had a dream, that one day his children would be judged by the content of their hearts and not the color of their skin. Sadly, his prediction that he may not get there with us came true.
    Robert Kennedy once stated that while most people see things that have happened and ask "why", he saw things that should have happened and he asked "why not?"  He, like his brother, believed strongly in the freedom and rights of man, and their divine origin.
     The voices of Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy, Dr. King, and Robert Kennedy were all silenced by an assassin's bullet, but their words live on.
     Lincoln told us that the world can never forget what happened at Gettysburg, and we haven't. John Kennedy's challenge is even more important today. Dr. King's dream is reality more than ever. And Robert Kennedy's question is being asked by more people who want answers and not excuses.
    It's not always the speaker who makes the speech good, nor is it the subject. And it is not the length of the talk that makes it great. And it is not always the location either.
    One of the most memorable speeches I ever heard was just twelve words long. On a hot July night in 1969, I sat with my brothers, sisters, and parents in our living room in New Mexico, where we listened to a voice, speaking from the Sea of Tranquility on the surface of the moon. We heard Neil Armstrong tell the universe, that he had taken one small step for mankind, and one giant leap for mankind.
    What is it that makes a speech memorable? In the end, it is you. You decide what a speech means to you.