On August 19, 1992 in the city of Houston Texas, a woman by the name of Mary Fisher gave her speech “A Whisper of Aids” to the Republican National Convention. Mary Fisher who is HIV positive and the daughter of Max Fisher, a prominent Republican fundraiser.
Fisher’s purpose of her speech was to grow awareness and to lift the silence of the issue of HIV/AIDS epidemic. In all sense Fisher attempted to call the public to attention about the nasty disease. As a result Fisher succeeds in her persuasiveness by using ethos, logos, and pathos throughout her address to the Republican Party, even though the crowd was in disarray and distracted in the beginning of the speech. In the end Mary Fisher’s goal was to raise awareness, education, and the prevention of HIV/AIDS.
She also spoke in San Diego in 1996 to continue her activism. However the 1992 speech in Houston Texas has been known as “one of the best American speeches of the 20th Century.” Before her speech, Fisher knew that she was speaking at the Republican National Convention, a highly conservative group of people, that were mainly Caucasian. The group of Conservatives at the time didn’t really care about the growing problem of HIV/AIDS in the United States. However Fisher used many useful tactics in her speech to help gain attention from the crowd.
At the beginning of Mary Fisher’s speech the distracted audience grew intrigued and listened. Fisher raised awareness for AIDS by diminishing stereotypes and demonstrating how people like you and me are affected by this chaotic disease. She also states in her speech that, it does not matter if you are Democrat or Republican, black or white, male or female, gay or straight, young or old (maryfisherart). This tells us that Fisher is talking to everyone in the convention. She also succeeded in making her audience become more aware by attacking them with fear and saying that AIDS can affect anyone, it is not just biased towards a particular group, party, or race. Another example of this would be when Fisher adds “If you believe you are safe, you are in danger” (maryfisherart). here Fisher uses a scare tactic again by saying that no matter what you do, you can still catch the disease.
Mary Fisher sought identification with the audience, by relating the disease she had (HIV/AIDS) to the audience and how it affects everyone not just a certain bias (As mentioned earlier). in general was on point. She used a scare tactic to gain the attention of a highly Conservative group about a topic. Mary Fisher was very successful reaching to her audience in her speech because of how the energy and tone changed in the audience. At first the crowd didn’t really care and were distracted amongst each other, overtime the audience realized that HIV/AIDS is not to be joked about after she said “If you believe you are safe, you are in danger” (maryfisherart), and how it affects everyone and not a certain bias group. Fisher’s speech helped gain knowledge and awareness of a disease ravaging through the United States.
