Not your average St Crispin's Day Speech
I've heard many of these today; this is the one that always moves me most. I sit here in tears, as I do every time I hear it.
This is from Rennaisance Man, a sadly overlooked movie with Danny DeVito.
"Danny DeVito plays an advertising man who is slowly sliding downhill. When he is fired from his job in Detroit, he signs up for unemployment. One day they find him a job; Teaching thinking skills to Army recruits. He arrives on base to find that there is no structure set up for the class. He begins by having them write and summarize books and magazines they are reading. When one of them asks him to describe what he is reading, he gives a National Enquirers' view of Hamlet, (Incest, murder, intrigue.) They ask to read it with him and the structure of the class is born; They will read Hamlet and critically analyze it.
Framing for this clip: The folder DeVito gets (and the reason he goes out to the field) is the service record for the father of one of his students. This student, stoutly through abuse by his fellows, believes his father died a hero in Vietnam. DeVito has checked up, and the folder contains the results.
Gregory Hines, the DI, has been belittling DeVito because he's not a soldier -- he's teaching English. When he finds that DeVito has been teaching Shakespeare to the class of "DD's," he scoffs and assumes all of them will wash out. He is especially skeptical when he hears that DeVito has taken the class to see a play (Henry V).
The boot Hines calls up to recite is one of those "DD's," who has been incompetent, and a particular subject for abuse.
The set-up for the speech is long, but I urge you to be patient.
And now:
Thank you, stmachiavelli, for re-enlisting and going back for us. We don't see eye-to-eye politically, but you are a hero in my heart. I think of you every day, as well as your family here in Cameron Park, and check to see your and her LJ posts to see how you are.
Thank you, Kevin. When I performed your wedding to your lovely bride all those years ago, and your brother SEALs' swords flashed in the air, it was a lovely dream, and we ignored what it is you really have to do. Every time you are deployed I know you are going in harm's way for me, Duncan, Jack and "all those now safe abed in England."
Thank you, Matt. When you graduated from HS a year ahead of Duncan and went straight into the Army, and then into the Rangers, I was proud of you and terrified as well. I know you are deployed again, and leave behind a newborn child.
Thank you, Joe. You are the light of my sister's life, and she has stayed strong for you since before Duncan was born, and now you've been in the sand twice for us. You stay in the reserves, knowing they can call you to fly again, because you believe that without experienced men in the air flying other tricky flights our troops will die unnecessarily.
Thank you to the Odums and Krichbaums, men and women alike, who for 8 generations have enlisted and served because they thought it was the right thing to do.
And, now it is our turn, boys and girls.
"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."
Pastor Martin Niemöller, (1892-1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.
This is from Rennaisance Man, a sadly overlooked movie with Danny DeVito.
"Danny DeVito plays an advertising man who is slowly sliding downhill. When he is fired from his job in Detroit, he signs up for unemployment. One day they find him a job; Teaching thinking skills to Army recruits. He arrives on base to find that there is no structure set up for the class. He begins by having them write and summarize books and magazines they are reading. When one of them asks him to describe what he is reading, he gives a National Enquirers' view of Hamlet, (Incest, murder, intrigue.) They ask to read it with him and the structure of the class is born; They will read Hamlet and critically analyze it.
Framing for this clip: The folder DeVito gets (and the reason he goes out to the field) is the service record for the father of one of his students. This student, stoutly through abuse by his fellows, believes his father died a hero in Vietnam. DeVito has checked up, and the folder contains the results.
Gregory Hines, the DI, has been belittling DeVito because he's not a soldier -- he's teaching English. When he finds that DeVito has been teaching Shakespeare to the class of "DD's," he scoffs and assumes all of them will wash out. He is especially skeptical when he hears that DeVito has taken the class to see a play (Henry V).
The boot Hines calls up to recite is one of those "DD's," who has been incompetent, and a particular subject for abuse.
The set-up for the speech is long, but I urge you to be patient.
Click to viewAnd now:
Thank you, stmachiavelli, for re-enlisting and going back for us. We don't see eye-to-eye politically, but you are a hero in my heart. I think of you every day, as well as your family here in Cameron Park, and check to see your and her LJ posts to see how you are.
Thank you, Kevin. When I performed your wedding to your lovely bride all those years ago, and your brother SEALs' swords flashed in the air, it was a lovely dream, and we ignored what it is you really have to do. Every time you are deployed I know you are going in harm's way for me, Duncan, Jack and "all those now safe abed in England."
Thank you, Matt. When you graduated from HS a year ahead of Duncan and went straight into the Army, and then into the Rangers, I was proud of you and terrified as well. I know you are deployed again, and leave behind a newborn child.
Thank you, Joe. You are the light of my sister's life, and she has stayed strong for you since before Duncan was born, and now you've been in the sand twice for us. You stay in the reserves, knowing they can call you to fly again, because you believe that without experienced men in the air flying other tricky flights our troops will die unnecessarily.
Thank you to the Odums and Krichbaums, men and women alike, who for 8 generations have enlisted and served because they thought it was the right thing to do.
And, now it is our turn, boys and girls.
"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."
Pastor Martin Niemöller, (1892-1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.