Documente Academic
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Georgina Anderson
Berrett
ENG1010
June 28, 16
A Whisper of AIDS
In 1992, Mary Fisher addressed the Republican National Convention with a moving and informative speech. She encouraged the Republican party to tackle the AIDS crisis and overcome
the stigma associated with the disease. Her speech known as A Whisper of AIDS is one of the
Top 100 American Speeches (The New York Times). In her speech, Mary Fisher brings awareness to a disease that is quietly killing millions of people while using all three parts of the rhetorical analysis triangle: pathos, ethos and logos.
In the beginning of her speech, Mary Fisher uses logos, or fact based information, to bring
awareness to her audience about the AIDS epidemic. She informs the Republican National Convention that, Two hundred thousand Americans are dead or dying. A million more are infected.
Worldwide, forty million, sixty million, or a hundred million infections will be counted in the
coming few years. She uses logos to inform her audience of the harsh truth and statistics behind
the current crisis with AIDS. She continues to use logos to strengthen her rhetorical appeal and
informs her audience about the continuing threat of AIDS. She says, The rate of infection is increasing fastest among women and children. Largely unknown a decade ago, AIDS is the third
leading killer of young adult Americans today.
Mary Fisher opens her speech by using her testimony and continues to share her story and
utilize ethos throughout her speech. She tells us that she is a mother of two and that she contracted HIV in her second marriage. While watching her speech online, on the bottom of the screen it
The New York Times, Defined by Words, Not by a Disease by Dan Shaw, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/fashion/aids-activist-mary-fisher-is-defined-by-wordsnot-disease.html?_r=0