Gary Wills on Speeches by Obama and Lincoln

Back when I started this blog, I stated that it wasn’t my intention to make this thing a political animal. I still don’t intend this blog to be overtly political – I’m just not that good at straight political coverage, and politics can be so very divisive…

Yet as time has passed, and as I’ve looked over the blogs that I’ve written, I realize that while I haven’t directly covered politics (I haven’t dedicated any space to politicians, political races, or overtly political issues), my political views have seeped into some of my blog entries. This is probably obvious to most who have read this blog.

So I suppose I should admit that, while political coverage is still not my beat, and while this blog is still devoted to the arts, it may occasionally veer rather close to the political realm when I feel it relevant to do so.

And now, to my point: back in late March, Barack Obama delivered a speech on the issue of race that I felt was really quite excellent. I am, as I have stated in a previous blog, a liberal, and so I was perhaps more inclined to be receptive to Obama’s words than some – and yet the eloquence of his speech was, I think, something that can be appreciated even by those who might disagree with him politically. His speech used the English language so well that it prompted me to remember that speech writing and oration were, once upon a time, often appraised very much like theatre and art. It seems to me that, in our contemporary culture, we are so used to utilitarian press conferences and meetings that we have forgotten how hard it is to display a skillful command of the language.

Gary Wills – an excellent historian, and a man who writes very well about language, rhetoric, and culture – has written a piece for The New York Review of Books that considers Obama’s speech and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. You’ll find the link here.