After the election, a number of students are missing from my Introduction to Public Speaking class, and the ones who are present ask if I will scrap the lesson plan so we can watch a speech by Trump "to figure out how he got elected."
They pick a speech Trump gave in Florida not long before the election, we watch 10 minutes of it, and then they talk.
Student from China: "Why is everyone so upset?"
Someone asks if we can watch "a good speech to compare." I suggest Obama's speech about race from his 2008 campaign, we watch ten minutes of that, and then the students talk.
Someone asks for another suggestion, something different in style. We watch the last few minutes of Martin Luther King's "I Have Been to the Mountaintop," and then they talk some more.
Obama and King appeal to our better angels, to history and education and inclusivity and progress. Trump, to anger and hate.
Student from California: "Other nations are laughing at us."
Student from Russia, who is watching one of Hitler's speeches on her laptop: "No one is laughing."
I am exhausted. I end class early, and as I leave the room, I realize the lights are off.
We have been discussing in the dark.
Obama's "A More Perfect Union"
Conclusion of Martin Luther King's "I Have Been to the Mountaintop"
Carolyn Hill (College Writing Programs)