Daniel+H’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2016


 * The Freedom From Fear **

We began the last quarter of our junior year learning about Franklin D. Roosevelt, and his four freedoms; the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want and the freedom from fear. Now I thought to myself what did he mean “freedom from fear”, for all I know it could mean anything, freedom from the fear of war, oppression, poverty, even an AMEX blog. Now you may think that last example was just there to get a little laugh but it means something. Since the beginning of the year we were given highly controversial prompts and asked to share our opinions on the subject. On the very first blog we were asked to share our opinions on whether or not the adversity Hester Prynne faced while being banished from her puritan society affected her in a positive or negative way. The thought of this terrified me. Looking back now, it seems like a pretty trivial dilemma, but nine months ago it truly bothered me. Growing up in today’s world expressing one’s ideas is becoming less and less personal. We send out a subtweet saying how angry we are, and hope that the person it was meant for sees it. Or we post a picture of an accomplishment or piece of work that we are proud of and hope that we get more likes than your last post. All we are doing is hiding behind a computer screen so that if someone doesn't like it, it's not that big of a deal. And even taking the cyber world out of the picture we are taught from a very young age to suppress our true feelings. I’m sure we have all heard the phrase, “if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all.” Although that statement is usually meant to keep second graders from calling each other poopy faces or something along those lines, it sticks with us. I am not saying that we all should ignore that filter in our brain that makes us think about what we have to say, but sometimes you have to give it to someone straight even if it hurts. Now in doing this we will see a rise of genuine conversations. This rise will increase the trust and reliance between people. The relationships between friends, family, and even business partners will be based off of true emotions and thoughts, not just fake statements intending to make someone like them or cause momentary sympathy. Ideas between colleagues could be discussed in full detail without the fear of embarrassment. Conversations between adults and working citizens will become far more productive due to the fact that topics will not be discussed using circumlocution, but will be short and to the point in order to relay opinions faster. We have all had that conversation where you ask someone how their day was, then you talk about some irrelevant thing that happened that day in school, then after a couple minutes of silence you ask the question you had wanted to ask the whole time. Having these valuable minutes wasted by beating around the bush of a topic that isn't the most pleasant to discuss, cuts into time that could be spent changing the world, not awkwardly standing around talking about the physio final we all failed. If conversations started with the mindset of just asking the question, then discussing just that could save all of us valuable time. This use of conciseness could and would rid of unnecessarily prolonged conversations. I wish to grow old in an America in which opinions are freely shared. I wish to grow old in an America where expressing one's thoughts and emotions are not ridiculed. I wish to grow old in an America where fear is not the reason genius is suppressed.