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“A Whisper of AIDS”

It is exactly twenty years from now when Mary Fisher delivered her speech “A whisper of AIDS.” to the audience in Republican National Convention at Houston. The main purpose of the speech was mainly to promote and create awareness of HIV and AIDS within the United States of America (USA). In the past, AIDS was unknown, however, at present AIDS is known to be the third leading cause of death among the young adults in America. From her speech, she stated that about 200,000 thousands of Americans were dead and other millions are infected. The key issue she addressed in her speech was that no one was safe from contracting HIV; she stated "If anyone of you believes that she/he is safe, then you may be in danger, since AIDS does not care if someone is a democrat or a republican, black or white, male or female, and many others.” She, therefore, uses herself as an example; a 44 year old white woman who comes from a wealthy family, and a mother of only two young boys (Dan 123). When she stood up to address the audience, Fisher strongly spoke firmly in a way which established her presence to the audience by use of gestures and a polite tone. In her speech, Fisher manages to use various rhetorical appeals such as ethos, logos as well as, pathos which helped her to sound ethical and effectively response to those rhetorical situations.

Various beautiful words along with coined phrases came from the speech she delivered to the Audience. Fisher accepted the reality of her being HIV-positive, which really gave her more credibility, her acceptance to the situation recognized the use of ethos just immediately when she began to address the audience. She represents demographics that people who are exempted from AIDS more often than not fall victims of devastating effects. However, this does not seem to be surprising at the present day after the audiences pay keen attention to Fishers speech which shocked many people regardless of her coming from a wealthy and upper-middle class of the people living within the U.S. Fisher used herself as an example to exemplify to people that despite of them thinking that they are untouchables so they can never be HIV-positive, they were in danger as she was. She continues by saying that she was not only safe from AIDS, although she manages to go on to account for any additional factor which exempted her from getting in touch with the disease, this is noted when she says; "for the reason that she was not hemophiliac, she was not at risk. Because she was not gay, she was not at risk too. Because she was not injected by any drugs, she was not at risk." Therefore, bottom line of its point was that she was never off limits to the effects of the disease, but she managed to get it anyway. This showed the audience that they were more at risk as other people, given that HIV and AIDS does not discriminate anyone, but it is only a disease which preys on all human beings (Dan 123).

Mary Fishers uses ethos in her speech when she fails to complain or mention her husband as the cause of her debilitating disease despite millions of people who watched on TV thinking that her husband could be the main cause for the HIV. Her credibility is established when she tells her audience that she wanted their attention but not their applause, she, at most time represented the people she was fighting for. In her speech, she manages to identify with the audience’s kindness most of the time, when she repetitively ask them whether they were really human since she believed that people with HIV does not seem to enter an alien state of being. She therefore tries to evoke the audience senses of responsibility creating awareness regarding shared humanity with other people who have been already afflicted by HIV. She reminded the audience that, as human beings, everyone should be ready of handling one another the same way they handle themselves, particularly those who are less fortune. She said, “...the face of AIDS has changed from being primarily a disease of white men, to a disease of people of all colors and both genders.” Fishers’ representation on the issue produced a concrete ethos while the frightening of HIV created the significant component of logos which was necessary for convincing the audience on the urgency as well as the ominous of nature. Fisher logically presents the audience with statistics regarding the projected number of people who were HIV victims.

The use of logos from Fishers’ speech made people to become more comprehend to issue; the emotional nature of the “A whisper of AIDS” produced a natural pathos. While giving out her speech, Fisher use emotional evocative imagery, where she states there has been an epidemic increase of HIV which has led to AIDS. In this case, she uses an image of a broken family who are struggling to continue staying positive while taking care of the hopelessly sick children. After relating the story to her case, she went ahead to deliver her speech to the audience with a distressing claim by telling them that if they happen to see the killer diseases stalking on the children, then one has to look forward in creating awareness of the killer disease (Richard 123). She tells the audience that it should be the duty of parents to protect their young ones. The logic of Fisher is very clear in this case, this is because without creating awareness, people can no longer move forward in fighting the battle of HIV and AIDS. It is, therefore, true that, the battle of HIV and AIDS can only be fought against using words but not by silence. Take a situation where most people view AIDS as a homosexual disease, then it will be definitely true that there will be no cure for it. Her logicality throughout the speech calls everyone to recognize the existence of AIDS by knowing that AIDS virus is not a political creature (Richard 123).

Towards the end of her speech, Fisher tries to pull out the hardest on heartstrings of the audience. She blankly says goodbyes to her two young children which exhibited the nature of her exigency. She says that she is never in a hurry of leaving them, but when she goes, she prays for them never to suffer the shame on behalf of her account. She said, "I will not hurry to leave you, my children, but when I go, I pray that you will not suffer shame on my account." This statement was not only devastating; however, it also addressed that sometimes she feels being ashamed of herself because of her condition, the shame that she prays that her beloved children never to inherit on her behalf. It is therefore, true that, all parents should relate to Fisher since leaving of children behind is usually the fear of every parent, more so when they are left behind with a burden of great shame, which makes it, to be more painful (Richard 123).

Mary Fishers pathos is evident when she gives statistics of people who were infected by HIV virus. She says, at least 40 million of people are today dying of AIDS while about 200,000 people living in the United States of America are infected daily. Her first appeal to the issue is fear. She fears that in the coming future, no one shall have been left behind from contracting the HIV virus. She on the other hand explains to the audience how AIDS is a killer by personifying it. She says, AIDS knows where everyone lives as well as, where they would like to hide. Therefore, by dramatizing the fear of speaking out loudly, she actually appeals to the guilt. Fishers appeal manages to move the audience to feel responsible for not speaking out regarding prejudices, which may prevent the cure. Fisher becomes very clear when she calls for courage that defined the word strength of acting wisely when a person is most afraid (Dan 123).

Conclusion

Besides all these, Fisher managed to open the eyes of the stereotypically closed-minded audience while using rhetorical devices, which includes the, use of ethos, logos as well as, pathos. Fisher did not only made them to understand along with empathizing with her exigence, however, she managed also to empower them so as to have enough courage that will help them in acting in a more civically responsible and in an ethical manner. Fisher's speech at all times made an abrupt impression on press because of contrast it offered. Therefore despite of the odds aligned with her, she carefully harnessed rhetorical situations making the audience to identify the cause of the disease while inspiring them to continue standing still for a safer future for their young children.

Works Cited

"Mr. Newman's Digital Rhetorical Symposium: Mary Fisher’s “A Whisper of AIDS” Speech Analysis." Mr. Newman's Digital Rhetorical Symposium. N.p., 2012 Web. 10 June 2013. <http://newmanrhetoric.blogspot.com/2010/10/mary-fishers-whisper-of-aids-speech_05.html>.

Nixon, Richard. "Mary Fisher, Whisper of Aids, Speech at the National Republican Convention, 1992 | Historymartinez's " Historymartinez's Blog | Just another WordPress.com site. N.p., 2012 Web. 10 June 2013. <http://historymartinez.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/mary-fisher-whisper-of-aids-speech-at-the-national-republican-convention-1992/>.

Shaw, Dan. "AIDS Activist Mary Fisher Is Defined by Words, Not Disease - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., 2012 Web. 10 June 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/fashion/aids-activist-mary-fisher-is-defined-by-words-not-disease.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.