Public speaking in a democracy

Journal of Instructional Psychology, Dec, 2004 by A.L. Evans, V. Evans, A.M. Lami Kanra, O.S.L. Jones

What amendments on voting do you like best? Make a short speech on the answer:

1. Greeting

2. Name

3. Purpose

4. Details

5. Conclusion

So in addition to free elections, a democratic government is based on a guarantee of the basic rights, as in the Bill of Rights. The initial part of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863 echoes these rights:

   Four scores and seven years ago our
   fathers brought on this continent a new
   nation conceived in liberty and dedicated
   to the proposition that all men are created
   equal ... That we here highly resolve that
   these dead shall not have died in vain, that
   this nation under God shall have a new
   birth of freedom, and that the government
   of the people, by the people, and for the
   people shall not perish from the earth
   (World almanac, 2004, p. 173).

Several others spoke of freedom for U.S. citizens, such as Sojourner Truth in her "Ain't I A Woman" speech (Rennvert, 1993, p. 45), Fredrick Douglass in his "Independence Speech," Mafia Stewart in her freedom speeches (Haywood, 2003), Susan B. Anthony's speeches on the rights of women, and others.

A number of court cases had to be filed before all Americans were included in the Bill of Rights:

   Dred Scott v. Sanford, 1857, in
   which a slave, Dred Scott, filed a lawsuit
   claim that, because he had lived in free
   soil, that he was entitled to his freedom.
   Chief Justice Roger B. Tancy disagreed,
   ruling that black people were not citizens
   and could not sue in federal court.

   Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896, in which
   the court declared that "equal but separate
   accommodations" for blacks on railroad
   cars did not violate the "equal protection
   under the law" clause of the 14th
   Amendment.

The Bill of Rights, ratified 1791, includes the following (World almanac, 2004, pp 168-169):

Amendment I (Freedom of religion, speech, and the right to petition)

Amendment II (The right to bear arms not to be infringed)

Amendment III (Quartering Troops) at consent of homeowner

Amendment IV (Persons and houses secured from unreasonable searches and seizures)

Amendment V (Trials for crime; just compensation for private property, taken for police use)

Amendment VI (Civil rights in trials for criminals enumerated)

Amendment VII (Civil rights in civil suits)

Amendment VIII (Excessive bail, fines, and punishment prohibited)

Amendment IX (Reserved rights of the people) not denied because of other rights

Amendment X (Powers not delegated, reserved to states and people respectively)

Which of the Amendments is most important? Use this as a format for short speeches:

1. Greeting

2. Name

3. Purpose

4. Details

5. Conclusion

The civil rights of U.S.A. citizens have been eroded in the last three years, while black people have never really felt the security of the rights. After the 9/11 disaster in America, the Patriot Act was established. The Act allows the police to have broadened subpoena powers, expands federal death penalty statue, and authorizes judges to deny bail for suspects in terrorism cases. The Act indeed violates civil rights of citizens, Amendments I-VIII, one of the tenets of a democratic government.