These Vital Speeches the Best of the 2012 Cicero Speechwriting Awards

2012 Edition These Vital Speeches The Best of the 2012 Cicero Speechwriting Awards Grand Award Winner 59 Write Your Own Book, by Lynne Holmes 2 Choosing the Gun 61 Words No Border Can Stop, by Luke Boggs by Annelies Breedveld 62 Eulogy for Angelo Domenichini, by John Santoro Category Winners 63 I was a Teenage Scientist: Life Lessons from the 5 Defending Anne and Larry, Lab, by Kim Clarke by Anna Puccinelli 67 The Extra Point: Nobody Else Can Do What We Do, 8 Beyond Boom and Bust: Business Cycles, Bicycles, by Mark Lucius and Cockpit Conversations by Robert N. Steck 13 Against the Wind: Growing in Turbulent Times, Honorable Mention by Tracy Weisman USA Inc., by Mary Meeker, Liang Wu and Duarte, Inc. 18 “Denial” in American Life, The Year of the Girl, by Kathleen Linkous by Daniel Rose Staying Relevant: Reflections and Commitments on a Journey 20 Reason as a Corporate Strategy, With Alzheimer’s, by John Santoro by Gordon C. Morse SC Chamber of Commerce Town Hall Address, by John Brinkley 24 A Wounded Iraq War Veteran’s Journey through Fail- ure and Success, by Sarah Gray & Rachel Crowell Strengthening Industrial Competitiveness To Promote Job Cre- 27 Times That Try Men’s Souls, by Daniel Rose ation, by Christopher Colford 32 Looking for Leaders in All the Wrong Places, by Something is Wrong Here, by John L. Napier Gordon Tomb Remarks of OPM Director John Berry at the 16th Annual 35 Pat Moynihan, Where are You When We Really Nashville Equality Dinner, by Harry Kruglik Need You?, by Daniel Rose Arbuckle Award Acceptance, by Tracy Weisman 36 Shale: Politics vs. Opportunity, by Bob Tippee The Life and Legacy of Ronald Wilson Reagan, by John Williams 40 Caring for Ourselves as We Care for Others: The Psy- chology of Resilience, by Robert L. Veninga, Ph.D. The Exploration Imperative, by John A. Barnes 43 Striving for Self-Aware Leadership Declaration of Self-Reliance: Turning a Regional Boom into a Begins Now, by Lucinda Trew National Policy, by Gordon Tomb 46 The Grim Reaper in Uniform: Pursuing Death and Three Lessons of the Internet Age, by Dex Torricke-Barton Meaning on the Battlefield, by Robert N. Steck 50 Restoring Prosperity to the Middle Class, Hatch the Little Fish, by Aaron Hoover by Boe Workman Rebuilding Trust in an Era of Debt, by Roger Lakin 54 Bridging the Gap to the Smart Grid: State of The Green House Revolution In Nursing Homes: Putting Home And the Union and Lessons Learned at Centerpoint, Heart Into Long Term Care, by Emerson Moran by Hal Gordon Class Begins Today, by Scott Davis 57 Turning Us Around: Lessons from a Life in Pa- tient Care, by John Santoro 2 GRAND AWARD WINNER Choosing the Gun Writer: Annelies Breedveld Speaker: General Peter van Uhm, Netherlands Chief of Defence Delivered at TEDxAmsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, November 25, 2011 s the highest military commander of the Nether- In many countries, it is a different story. Alands, with troops stationed around the world, In many countries, people are confronted with guns. I am honoured to be here today. They are oppressed, they are intimidated. When I look around at this TEDxAmsterdam venue, I By war-lords. see a very special audience. By terrorists. You are the reason why I said Yes to the invitation to By criminals. come here today. --- When I look around, I see people who want to make a Weapons can do a lot of harm. contribution. They are the cause of much distress. I see people who want to make a better world. --- By doing groundbreaking scientific work. Why then, am I standing before you, with this weapon? By creating impressive works of art. By writing critical articles or inspiring books. By starting up sustainable businesses. You all have chosen your own instruments to fulfil this mission of creating a better world. Some chose the microscope as their instrument. Others chose dancing or painting or making music. Some chose the pen. Mission: The Cicero Speechwriting Awards Others work through the instrument of money. honor speechwriters for their contribution to the public conversation. Judged by experts (--- Captain enters stage and presents gun. General Van Uhm takes gun ---) in the communication field, the Cicero Speechwriting Awards celebrate all aspects Ladies and gentlemen, I share your goals. I too want to make a better world. of an unforgettable speech: content, clarity, I did not choose to take up the pen, the brush, the camera. organization and style. I chose this instrument. --- To receive information on how to enter the 2013 Cicero I chose… the gun. For you, being so close to this gun, may make you feel Speechwriting Awards, you can call us at 888-303-2373, e-mail uneasy. Jenny Morris at [email protected], It may even feel scary. or visit our website at cicerospeechwritingawards.com. A real gun. At a few feet’s distance. --- The 2013 Cicero Speechwriting Awards deadline will be February 10, Let us stop for a moment and feel this uneasiness. 2012. It will be open to any speeches given within the 2011 Let us cherish this feeling. calendar year. Start gathering your speeches today! Let us cherish the fact that probably most of you have never been close to a gun. It means the Netherlands is a peaceful country. The Netherlands is not at war. It means soldiers are not needed to patrol our streets. Guns are not a part of our lives. of the day cicerospeechwritingawards.com 3 Why did I choose the gun as my instrument? risked their lives to liberate a country and a people they Today I want to tell you why. did not know. Today I want to tell you why I chose the gun to create It was then, that I decided I would take up the gun. a better world. Out of respect and gratitude for those men who came And I want to tell you how this gun can help. to liberate us. From the awareness that, sometimes, only the gun stands (--- General puts down gun on table in spotlight---) between good and evil. My story starts in Nijmegen, in the east of the Nether- That is why I took up the gun. lands, the city where I was born. My father was a hardworking baker. But when he had finished work in the bakery, he told Not to shoot. me and my brother stories. Not to kill. Not to destroy. And most of the time, he told us this story:… But to stop those who would do evil. …The story of what happened when he was a conscript To protect the vulnerable. soldier in the Dutch armed forces at the beginning of the To defend democratic values. Second World War. To stand up for the freedom we have, to talk here The Nazis invaded the Netherlands. today in Amsterdam, about how we can make the world Their grim plans were evident. a better place. They meant to rule by means of repression. Diplomacy had failed to stop the Germans. Ladies and gentlemen, Only brute force remained. I do not stand here today to tell you about the glory of It was our last resort. weapons. I do not like guns. My father was there to provide it. And once you have been under fire yourself, it brings home even more clearly, the notion that a gun is not some As the son of a farmer, who knew how to hunt, he was macho instrument to brag about. an excellent marksman. I stand here today to tell you about the use of the gun When he aimed, he never missed. as an instrument of peace and stability. At this decisive moment in Dutch history, my father was The gun may be one of the most important instruments positioned on the bank of the river Waal, near the city of of peace and stability that we have in this world. Nijmegen. Now this may sound contradictory to you. He had a clear shot at the German soldiers who came to But not only have I seen this with my own eyes, during occupy a free country. my deployments in the Lebanon and Sarajevo, and as the He fired. Netherlands Chief of Defence. Nothing happened. This is also supported by cold, hard statistics. He fired again. Violence has declined dramatically over the last 500 years. No German soldier fell to the ground. Despite the pictures we are shown daily in the news. --- Wars between developed countries are no longer com- My father had been given an old gun that could not reach monplace, the murder rate in Europe has dropped by a the opposite river bank. factor of thirty since the Middle Ages… …and occurrences of civil war and repression have de- Hitler’s troops marched on and there was nothing my clined since the end of the Cold War. father could do about it. Statistics show that we are living in a relatively peaceful era. Until the day my father died, he was frustrated about Why? missing these shots. Why has violence decreased? He could have done something. Has the human mind changed? But with an old gun, not even the best marksman in the Did we simply lose our beastly impulses for revenge, for army could have hit the mark. violent rituals, for pure rage? --- Or is there something else? This story stayed with me. In his latest book, Harvard professor Steven Pinker, and Then, in high school, I was gripped by the stories of the many other thinkers before him, concludes that one of the Allied soldiers.

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