My Speech:

Good evening America,

Today was a day of sadness. Our nation grieves with those who morn over loved ones lost at Virginia Tech. We hold these victims in our thoughts. We lift them up in our prayers. We ask God to comfort those in suffering, and to keep them strong through this reckless time.

As of this moment at 5:08 on April 17, 2007, we have concluded that 32 fellow student and faculty Americans are dead, and many others wounded. A school should be a place of safety, safe-haven, and learning, not of tragedy, disaster, and devastation. This tragedy is not only felt throughout the nation, but most importantly, our classrooms. Our flags are being flown at half-staff at the White House and at all public buidings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels. We remember and respect.

Though we are in sadness, we must understand, we hang our heads knowing that their will come a better day. Just like the sun, our heads shall rise with great respect for the ones lost. With tears or not, we must stand strong, and not rest on the past, but also not forgetting our loved ones, but look towards our future. Tonight we stand as one nation, the United States of America. All thoughts and prayers are with all those in suffering.

May you find peace, and may God be with you,

Ross L. Name

Claim:
assertion of reckoning

Warrant:
respect, prayers, and thoughts with those who are dead or in sorrow

Backing:
32 dead many others wounded
flags flown at half-staff all over our nation

Rebuttal:
raise our heads to a new day, look towards the future, but not forgetting our loved ones lost

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/nikkigiovannivatechmemorial.htm

We are Virginia Tech.
We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile.
We are not moving on; we are embracing our mourning.
We are Virginia Tech.
We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly;
We are brave enough to bend to cry
And sad enough to know we must laugh again.
We are Virginia Tech.
We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does the child in Africa dying of AIDS; neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by a rogue army; neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water; neither does a Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.
We are Virginia Tech.
The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hand to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness. We are the Hokies.
We will prevail!
We will prevail!
We will prevail!
We are Virginia Tech.



Warrant:
We are virginia tech, to stand strong, and sorrow no more, no one deserves a tragedy

Backing:
child in Africa dying of AIDS; invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by a rogue army; baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory;Mexican child looking for fresh water;a Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized.

Rebuttal:
We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness

Claim:
That We are Virginia Tech, no one deserves a tragedy, and we will stand strong to proceed with the future