MLK Day & Wilberforce

I told my kids tonight at supper that tomorrow's inauguration is the most significant historical event in their lifetime. They're 5, 4, and 21 months old. I am pretty sure they did not understand although Lara's attention did spark when I mentioned that a grand ball was planned to cap off the celebration. Somehow I think she expects Cinderella to be in attendance. Anyway...

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and tomorrow the United States of America will inaugurate the first African American President. This is big stuff, not just for my kids, but for world at large. I have been reading a biography on William Wilberforce and am learning more about the history of the slave trade and how Wilberforce was enthusiastically and passionately out front on its ultimate destruction. Reading about the work of Wilberforce helps reinforce the meaning of Obama's presidency and may very well be the most important historical event in my lifetime.

In my reading I am fascinated with the skill at which Wilberforce approached the arguments he prepared for Parliament. The research, interviews, reading, and site visits that went into forming his abolitionist viewpoint is mind blowing. There is no question as to his life's work.

On May 12, 1789 Wilberforce gave a 3 1/2 hour speech beginning the abolitionist movement in England. It is said that Wilberforce had a multifaceted strategy as he approached his now famous speech to the House of Commons. In this biography, the author William Hague lists eight devices Wilberforce uses in the speech, which is considered a masterpiece. Only because of my fascination do I list the eight devices of persuasion:

• disarming a skeptical audience
• flattery
• inclusion of opponents of personal feelings of outrage
• picking the weakest part of the opponents case & ridiculing it
• arguing the consequences of current policies
• reassurance-inviting opponents to agree with a proposition before immediately showing it groundless
• appealing to British self interest
• gave audience [House of Commons] choice between inspirational reform or guilty inaction

Maybe I have not paid close enough attention, but who in today's world can match the craftsmanship of speech writing? I am not a speech writer nor have I given many speeches, but I am impressed with the skill and focus at which Wilberforce spoke. I have been trying to find a copy of the speech but can only find an extract. Read it for yourself and you will understand the brilliance.

Reading Hague's biography has both inspired me and made me question the efforts of the modern politician/mogul/leader to influence the future for good. I am probably short sighted when I say this, but I feel like the closest anyone comes to the type of appeal that Wilberforce exhibited is a used car dealer. What has led to the current cultural landscape where sound bites, 60 second commercials, and network television scripted political debates have been the primary source of "need to know" ideas? An even graver question is why are we, that is the public, so apathetic? It seems that the networks script the debates for fear the public would not watch. I guess it is easy to point a finger and cast blame as it takes less effort to complain and flip channels.

Both Martin Luther King Jr. and William Wilberforce were men of inspiration and action; men whose skill, passion, and painstaking effort proved valuable for each of us today. These men are heros who without question were living beyond themselves but for a calling, that because successful, all of history enjoys.