Answer to Question #260533 in History for Lara

Question

Adapt the speech you delivered in Lesson 2 to an audience of professionals, teachers, and parents. The audience expects a more formal delivery. Your listeners also expect you to use media such as images and audio to make your speech more convincing and easier to understand.

Your assignment should include the following elements:

• At least four sources to back up your ideas
• Media elements to illustrate your ideas
• Changes to both the style and content of the speech to make it more appropriate to the audience
• Citations that follow MLA guidelines

You should have completed a draft of this assignment in the activity before this one. If you haven't done so, go back and complete that activity now.

Answer 1

“Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the Seventy-seventh Congress: I address you, the Members of the Seventy-seventh Congress, at a moment unprecedented in the history of the Union. I use the word "unprecedented," because at no previous time has American security been as seriously threatened from without as it is today. Since the permanent formation of our Government under the Constitution, in 1789, most of the periods of crisis in our history have related to our domestic affairs. Fortunately, only one of these four-year Wars between the States ever threatened our national unity. Today, thank God, one hundred and thirty million Americans, in forty-eight States, have forgotten points of the compass in our national unity.” At the time that President Roosevelt gave his State of the Union address in 1941, the U.S. was on the verge of a world war. After World War I, the United States adopted an isolationist stance, refusing to sign the Treaty of Versailles, refusing to join the League of Nations, and implementing the Neutrality Acts. These steps were taken to avoid future U.S. involvement in another Great War. However, by 1940, France had fallen to Germany, and the Axis Powers’ domination of Europe was almost complete. President Roosevelt was strongly opposed to the isolationist stance of the United States and had been providing Great Britain with supplies but was prevented from declaring war or sending out troops. Roosevelt's State of the Union speech was carefully designed to outline the justifications for the involvement of the United States in World War II, an issue he believed the United States would eventually be forced to enter regardless of the State of the Union address, Roosevelt pointed to four essential human Freedoms that the U.S should protect. President Roosevelt’s speech connected very deeply with the public and his Four Freedoms Speech came to represent the core values of American life and America’s wartime goals. President Roosevelt started the speech by analyzing America’s commitment to international neutrality in the face of fascism. He exposed that the spread of European fascism was a direct threat to the United States by arguing that Mericans cannot expect lasting security, good business from a dictator, and even peace. He explained the importance of standing up for American ways with the well-known saying: “Those, who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” To respond to the threat of war, President Roosevelt declared that the U.S.needs to begin wartime preparations seriously. The United States being part of the push, would need to actively aid countries that were already at war. Roosevelt's speech corresponded with the introduction of his Lend-Lease bill to congress. The Lend-Lease policy would allow the United States to send free weapons, food, and oil to countries rejecting the Axis Powers in return for leases on army/naval bases in the allied territory. The adoption of the Lend-Lease policy marked the official end of the United States neutrality in World War II.

The Four Freedoms Speech relates to my life because freedom of religion is a very important part of me. Freedom of religion played a big role in issues, causing terrible consequences. The Global Peace Index listed that there had been increased terrorist activity because there is a decline in peace. Freedom of religion was not only a factor of the conflicts back then but also is now. When President Roosevelt created freedom from fear, he wanted to make sure that no country would have to be placed in a position to start acts of aggression. In today's world, just by reading the news, we know that this freedom is not a given. From terrorist threats to refugees seeking everything, they have hoped to find a better future for their children. We as Americans should be grateful for our freedoms and that we are protected by the law.