Rhetorical Analysis Of Mary Fisher's Speech

Twenty-five years ago at the 1992 Republican National Convention AIDS activist, Mary Fisher, gave a thirteen minute speech that is now among one of the Top 100 American Speeches. Fisher relies on the use of the rhetorical aspects of ethos, pathos, and logos to speak about the importance of raising awareness in order to find a cure for HIV/AIDS. She shoots down stereotypes by saying that no one is safe from contracting HIV and calls for compassion when treating patients with HIV or AIDS. In her infamous speech Fisher says, “ if you believe you are safe, you are in danger”. Mary Fisher establishes ethos in her speech due to coming from a well known family, she is the daughter of a powerful and wealthy Republican as well as being a wife and
She states, “two hundred thousands Americans are dead or dying. A million more are infected. Worldwide, forty million, sixty million, or a hundred million infections will be counted in the coming few years.” Fisher’s logistics show an increasing amount of cases that affect many and as many as it affects there is still no cure for HIV. Without awareness there cannot be a decrease in those whose lives have been taken due to this disease. If AIDS is continued to be seen as a disease that affects homosexuals or drug addicts only then there will be no movement to find a cure. “Tonight, HIV marches resolutely toward AIDS in more than a million American homes, littering its pathway with the bodies of the young -- young men, young women, young parents, young children.” By saying this Fisher is implicating that HIV is not only a disease that affects only homosexual men or prostitutes or people in low developing countries but affects millions of Americans no matter their gender or socioeconomic status. “The rate of infection is increasing fastest among women and children... AIDS is the third leading killer of young adult Americans today.But it won’t be third for long, because unlike other diseases, this one travels.” She uses these statistics to prove that AIDS is not like cancer or heart disease
She makes the audience believe that it is their fault that so many people have been affected by HIV/AIDS and makes them feel guilty by stating that “ we have killed each other with our ignorance, our prejudice and our silence.” Fisher proves that silence isn’t always the best option because hiding and silencing about having the disease inhibits the research and the search for a cure. More use of pathos in her speech is when she attempts to target the emotions of her audience by stating, “people with HIV have not entered some alien state of being. They are human. They have not earned cruelty, and they do not deserve meanness. They don’t benefit from being isolated or treated as outcasts. Each of them is exactly what God made: a person; not evil....worthy of compassion” Fisher is saying that people with HIV or AIDS are not defined by the disease, they did not ask to have it and shouldn’t be treated any differently than any other person. Poor treatment and judgment will not help raise awareness nor find a cure for these people, ignorance will only make the battle longer and harder, people should try to be compassionate with those who have