Nothing is more effective in conveying information to an audience than doing so by painting word pictures. Use words to bring up pictures in your listeners’ the mind’s eyes. Seize your audience’s attention by vividly describing what happened. When you describe two pictures that are in striking contrast to one another that can evoke powerful emotions, particularly when you go from a pleasant to sharply different unpleasant scene.
On this Memorial Day, I was thinking of another memorial in New York.
This is what happened at the sentencing in the Zacarias Moussaoui case. It is difficult to even read what follows without feeling the sadness.
Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty in in federal court to conspiring to kill citizens of the United States as part of the 9/11 attacks.
At the sentencing hearing, U.S. Attorney Robert Spencer said:
“Thank you, Your Honor.
“September 11th, 2001 dawned clear, crisp and blue in the northeast United States. In lower Manhattan in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, workers sat down at their desks tending to e-mail and phone messages from the previous days.
“In the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, military and civilian personnel sat in briefings, were focused on their paperwork.
“In those clear blue skies over New York, over Virginia, and over Pennsylvania, in two American Airlines jets and in two United Airlines jets, weary travelers sipped their coffee and read their morning papers as flight attendants made their first rounds.
“And in fire and police stations all over New York City, the bravest among us reported for work.
“It started as an utterly normal day, but a day that started so normally and with such promise, soon became a day of abject horror. By morning's end, 2,972 people were slaughtered in cold blood.”
“And that clear, blue sky became clouded with dark smoke that rose from the Trade Towers of New York, from the Pentagon in Virginia, and from a field in rural Pennsylvania. And within a few hours out of that clear, blue sky came terror, pain, misery, and death, and those 2,972 never again saw their loved ones, never again gave their kids a goodnight kiss.
“That day, September 11th, 2001, became a defining moment, not just for 2,972 families, but for a generation.
“Killers were among us that day and for more than just that day. Those killers had lived among us for months, planned for years to cut our throats, hijack our planes, and crash them into buildings to burn us alive.
“On that day, September 11, 2001, a group of cold-blooded killers from distant lands capped their plan, their conspiracy, to kill as many innocent Americans as possible. . . .”
Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to six life sentences without parole.
No comments:
Post a Comment