Part 3

Textual communication, or content that is read or viewed, also plays a role in communicating with others. Textual information may gain deeper meaning when the text is spoken or viewed in a specific context versus when it is read.

Read the following quotes and write a 50- to 100-word interpretation of what you think is being expressed. Support your responses. If you wish to include references, format your responses consistent with APA guidelines.

• “Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.” (The Ride down Mount Morgan, Act I)

— Arthur Miller

• “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” (The Outline of History, Ch. 41)

  —H. G. Wells

• “The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

  We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

  Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

  — John F. Kennedy (1961 Inaugural Address)

• “In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable Rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’ It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’

  But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”

  — Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963 “I have a dream” speech)

Resources

Kennedy, J. F. (1961, January 20). Inaugural address. Presidential inauguration, Washington, DC. Retrieved from: http://www.historystudycenter.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/search/displaySuitemAsciiItemById.do?QueryName=suitem&fromPage=studyunit&ItemID=28545&resource=prd.

King, M. L., Jr. (1963, August 28). “I have a dream” speech. Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://www.historystudycenter.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/search/displayReferenceItemById.do?QueryName=reference&fromPage=studyunit&ItemID=phs00159&fromPage=studyunit&resource=ref

WikiQuote. Retrieved from http://www.wikiquote.org.