I remember once my high school teacher invited the whole class to share our dreams with each other. I said, “I want to become an architect in future.” My desk mate said, “I want to be a public speaker.” Interestingly, a year later, he flew abroad to go for architecture, and I went to college majoring in English. And Look who is giving a speech right now.
What I learned from this experience was that, the road we end up taking can be different from our first plans. If we all realize our initial dreams, this world will be full of supermen and princesses. As I grew up, I often hear people say, life is all about making compromise. Your dream may die. You have to come terms with your life.
Well, my mother doesn’t see it that way. She is a kindergarten teacher, but she has a gift in painting. I often said to her, “if you had applied for an art school, you would definitely have made a great painter.” She said, “Yes, I would. But you were born!” “But it’s ok,” she continued, “I love kids. I can see their cuteness and innocence every day. Besides, they love me as well. Plus, I have a son who is about to see Rui Chenggang face to face. My colleagues are going to be so jealous of me. I am happy with who I am and I love my job.”
Sometimes when we are stuck in a rut, we may stop and wonder if life could be better had we taken the other road, and we may regret having lost so much for our stupid decisions. But on the threshold of adulthood, I would rather view my life in a positive light. I believe there is no absolute losing. Even though we seem to have made a compromise with each choice, even though we seem to have wasted a lot of effort with each failure, we are gaining something every step of the way.
Had I not given up my dream to be an architect, I wouldn’t have found my love for English, and I wouldn’t have met my friends, who, in order to boost my confidence before the speech contest, gathered in my dormitory and held a pep rally. I wouldn’t have met my professors who have always been patient with me, even when I couldn’t come up with a satisfying speech for 2 weeks.
And had I not spent the last 2 weeks painfully preparing for the speech contest, I wouldn’t have had a chance to think about this world, to ponder on life and to form a better understanding of myself.
For all my blessings, I owe my life an attitude of gratitude. From time to time I would picture myself working in my own studio, designing a beautiful villa. But I will not regret it, because I’m happy with who I am, and I love what I have.
So ladies and gentlemen, don’t be so obsessed with the other road in your life. The path you chose may not be ideal, but that’s not the end of the world. Fill your heart with gratitude. Break up with your regrets, and fall in love with your dream. Through all the hardships and difficulties, you’ll find that you’ve garnered more than you’ve sacrificed.
The other day my mother called me and said, “When the contest is over, I will give you a reward for your hard work.” I said, “There is no need for another present. I already have my present. ”
Good morning everybody, I’m very glad to stand here and give you a short speech. We all know that Bingxin has a famous saying “we always admire the beauty of flowers but its sprout was watered by tears of struggle and rained by blood of sacrifice”. So for the majority, behind their success, are filled of sweat and tears. Eagle flying in the vast firmament, must be experienced the pain of countless times fall under the cliff, then hammered out a pair of volley wings. A shinning of pearls, inevitably suffered countless body friction and numerous waves’ shock. In this view, a real successful people, and he must experienced numerous times to stand up again and agin after failed, because without sweat and tears on the life road ,no one can casually get the beautiful flowers. Alfter a heavy fall Shi Tiesheng lost his legs, it must be a heavy blow for anyone. But he didn't lose faith in life, but use his brain and hands to show the infinite love of life;
Beethoven was blind and deaf, but he still had written the "Hero""Destiny"nd so on a large number of music works, in his unfortunately life, he doggedly gripped the "fate of the throat. They all had a fall, but they are strong enough to stand up, fight against fate and misfortune, finally they succeed. So for each of us, wrestling is not terrible, lose confidence and courage in life is the most terribe thing. In my opionion, the sweat and tears during the life’ journey are very important for us, they hone our will, and enrich our experience. As the saying goes, how can you see the rainbow without a rainy day, while you don't work hard and not struggle, how can you gain the successful flowers. All in all, the sweat and tears on the struggling road is inevitable, don’t look for shortcuts anymore, steadfast walk every step, we will succeed in the end. So belief yourself, nothing is impossile, just do it. Thank you for taking your time to listen to my speech, I hope in the near future we all can be successful.
大家早上好,我很高兴站在这里给你一个简短的演讲。我们都知道冰心的一句名言“我们总是欣赏花的美丽,但其发芽被眼泪浇灌的斗争和牺牲的血雨”。所以对于大多数人来说,他们的成功背后,是充满汗水和泪水。鹰飞翔在辽阔天空,必须经历无数次的痛苦下悬崖,然后敲定一对凌空的翅膀。闪光的珍珠,不可避免地遭受了无数身体摩擦和许多海浪的冲击。在这个视图中,一个真正成功的人,他一定经历过无数次失败后再次站起来,反对,因为没有汗水和泪水的生活道路上,没有人能随随便便获得美丽的花朵。Alfter重下降摘要史铁生失去了他的腿,它必须对任何人来说都是一个沉重的打击。但他没有对生活失去信心,而是用他的大脑和手显示生命的无限的爱;
贝多芬失明、失聪,但他仍然写了“英雄”的“命运”nd等等大量的音乐作品,在他的不幸的生活,他固执地抓住了“命运的喉咙。他们都有下降,但它们足以站起来,对抗命运和不幸,最后他们成功。所以对我们每个人来说,摔跤并不可怕,对生活失去信心和勇气是最差劲的事情。在我opionion,汗水和泪水在生命的旅程是非常重要的对我们来说,他们磨练我们的意志,并丰富我们的经验。俗话说,你怎么能看到彩虹没有雨天,你不努力,不奋斗,你怎么能获得成功的花朵。总之,汗水和眼泪苦苦挣扎的道路上是不可避免的,不再寻找捷径,坚定的走每一步,最后我们会成功的。所以相信自己,没有什么是impossile,就这样做。谢谢你带你的时间听我的演讲,我希望在不久的将来我们都能成功。
I was seventeen, almost a senior in high school. I was riding my bike to school. I had taken a special route to pick up a gift, but that day, "the road less traveled by" led to disaster. Crossing a road, a drunk driver ran a red light, slammed into me, and shattered my left knee.
It made all the difference.
I was forced to postpone college, plunged into painful therapy . . . but eventually, I also learned much about life and myself. I found the strength to withstand adversity, learned compassion, and above all, I learned that the road not taken is not just about regrets or choices but also about the perpetual now and the always-coming future.
When I first studied Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” in middle school, I was unable to grasp its ambiguity. I always thought that Frost’s persona chooses “a road less traveled by” and lives life being subversive and irreverent. I was wrong. In the poem, both of the two roads that “diverged in a yellow wood” are actually “about the same.” But there has to be a choice, and sometimes, they it can be involuntary (as I learned the hard way). This makes me extremely thankful and resolute when I can make conscious choices and plan for the future, and so I know now that Frost's poem is also about "the road not [yet] taken."
For everyone, this means something slightly different. For me, it means constant vigilance, learning, and love. Our journey is hard, complex, and it often presents unexpected twists, but reflecting on the roads not taken and not yet taken each day gives us a little more strength and confidence. Life cannot and will not me perfect, and the truth is it will end. But as Willa Cather would say, “The end is nothing, the road is all.” The road not taken in the past, and the road not yet taken that lies ahead.
But about the present? It joints the past and the future. What then, is “the road not taken” in the perpetual now? Personally, I find an answer in these lines from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses”:
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Thank you.
Good morning everyone，may I have your attention，please? I am glad to be able to give a lecture on this classroom. This once , I want to talk about English. My topic of conversation is that I love English.
As everyone knows,English is very important today.It has been used everywhere in the world.It has become the most common language on Internet and for international trade. If we can speak English.well,we will have more chance to succeed.Because more and more people have taken notice of it,the number of the people who go to learn English has increased at a high speed.
But for myself,I learn English not only because of its importance and its usefulness,but also because of my love for it.When I learn English, I can feel a different way of thinking which gives me more room to touch the world.When I read English novels,I can feel the pleasure from the book which is different from reading the translation.When I speak English, I can feel the confident from my words.When I write English,I can see the beauty which is not the same as our Chines.
I love English,it gives me a colorful dream.I hope I can travel around the world one day. With my good English, I can make friends with many people from different contries.I can see many places of great intrests.I dream that I can go to London,because it is the birth place of English.
I also want to use my good English to introduce our great places to the English spoken people,I hope that they can love our country like us.
I know, Rome was not built in a day. I believe that after continuous hard study, one day I can speak English very well.
If you want to be loved, you should learn to love and be lovable. So I believe as I love English everyday , it will love me too.
I am sure that I will realize my dream one day!
Thank you!
The fairytale of Aladdin has always been my childhood favorite. I was mesmerized by how Aladdin used his three magic wishes. As a small girl, I dreamed of having the magic wishes to go wherever I wanted to go and see whatever I wanted to see. As you can probably guess, I haven't found my genie in the lamp yet, however, I have found something just as exciting and it has made marvelous changes in not only my life, but the lives of all human-beings. It is called technology.
I still remember how my father told me about his childhood back in those days when China was not as open and developed as it is now. Children would run for kilometers to school, make toys with wood by themselves, and the biggest dream of a child was holding two jars of sugar, one white, the other brown in each arm and having the choice of eating whichever he wanted. Just look at what we have now. Magnificent technological advancement has opened up a whole new world to us.
However, just as our lives become more convenient, problems arise from this new life style. We seem to be caged in the modern technology; we are thinking alike as a result of using the same search engine, we are getting lazy as most of our work can be done by machines, and we are alienating people around us for we are more comfortable talking on phones and typing in front of a computer.
If I was given the chance to make my magic wishes now, I would wish we could go back in time and live for three days without advanced technology. I wonder what we would do in those three days. Here is what I imagine:
On the first day, people would be feeling so uncomfortable with the new situation that they would probably be confused and just not know what to do. The world would be in a mess for the whole day.
On the second day, as life goes on, people would have to find alternative ways to deal with their daily rituals: students would have to go to libraries for information they wanted instead of searching on Google; boys would have to express their affection to girls in person instead of sending an annoying txt message; and the young people of today would have the chance to experience the childhood of their parents. On this particular day, we could recover all we had lost in the modern world.
Then comes the third day. After the previous two days, we would gradually come to realize that we should have paid more attention to our studies and work as we actually have so much creativity and potential within ourselves. We would also realize that we should have spent more time with a friend, a parent or a child as we do love them, but we don't really understand them due to the lack of personal communication. We shouldn't have been so dependent on modern technology as it wasn't invented to confine us, but to inspire us. This last day would be spent in sparks of new ideas and sweet moments with our loved ones.
Maybe some would argue that it is just my imagination, and that magic would never work in our world. True, but magic can always work in our hearts, helping us understand that we, instead of the machine, are the masters of the world. The key is to treasure our human initiative and connections, to see the world with our own eyes, explore the unknown with our minds and treat others with our hearts. Just like Aladdin didn't choose to use magic to gain a happy life, we can make our choice, too. And when we do, we will live, as in the fairy tales, happily ever after. Thank you.
Good morning, everybody!
In this world, there is one thing that is very fair to everybody, whether you are a male or female, young or old, rich or poor. Does anybody know what it is called?
Right. It is time. The topic I am going to present to you today is called “ Treasure Every Minute”.
The clock is running. Make the most of today.
To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train.
To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.
To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.
Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with.
And remember that time waits for no one. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present!! The clock is running. Make the most of today.
Good luck, everybody!
Good afternoon, my dear friends.
I am very happy to meet you here.It is my great honor to communicate with you at such a special occation.First of all,please allow me to express my appreciation to you all to listion to me.
I am proud of being a college student.The collegelife is fresh,new teachers, new classmates and new friends. I like the friendship, and their wide knowledge and opening mind. The grand library, school buildings and wide playground attrattde me very much.My college life is better than I expected, I can do anything I like. In the college we can not only learn the professional knowledge,but also develop our comprehensive abilities.If we can make full use of the period,we can learn many useful things.Besides,we should have the active attitude to our life,do a contributionto the society.Collegelife is the most precious time in our life.Most of us want to become an outstanding man. But there are some students still waste their time. They get together for eating, drinking or playing cards. They're busy in searching for a girlfriend or a boyfriend. They completely forget their task as college students.
Finally, I hope everybody can try their best to become a worthy person to our country, and make great contributions to the society!
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Today my topic is The Road Not Taken in Life.
“Why are you doing this? Don’t you know it’s a total waste of time?” That’s what my mom yelled at the ten-year-old me, when she found out that I had signed up for an English story-telling competition.
I bowed my head; yes, she was right. By then I was entering Grade Six, faced with the biggest challenge yet to come—the examination to enter my dream junior high school. For that, I had given up my beloved piano lesson, my favorite cartoon program and even the playful weekend family reunion with my cousins. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if my very-strict-university-teacher mother got furious at me when I chose to do anything besides study at that crucial moment.
But that’s not all to it. Now please take a good look at the twenty-year-old me, and imagine what I was like when I was ten. Here are the key words: nervous, timid, shy, tongue-tied when facing strangers, and essentially a bookworm. These signs looked fatal to my mother, and possibly to you, too; she thought that I could be anything but a good public speaker.
Well, I myself actually said no to my English teacher at first, because I had never done anything like that before and I was afraid. But he told me since I liked reading so much, why not try to tell a story I love to everyone? He also promised me that the judges were not frightening at all; just think of them as carrots and cabbages in a vegetable patch.
The ten-year-old me was persuaded by my teacher’s words. The feeling of telling my beloved stories to someone else ignited a spark of anticipation in my little chest. So I chose to endure my mother’s ranting for an entire hour, then raised my head bravely and pleaded: “Mom, please. I just want to try.”
My mother looked as if she was on the verge of another outburst—but she only sighed. I took that as her permission, and started working with my teacher day and night to find a story, to illustrate the details, and to practice my facial expressions and gestures in front of the mirror. On the day of the competition, I went on the stage for the very first time in my life; I could feel the nervousness threatening to bring me down, and I felt cheated by my teacher: it was impossible to picture the judges as mere carrots and cabbages. But I went on. Although I only got the third prize at that time, on that stage I stayed ever since, even to this very moment.
I should thank my teacher and my mother for letting me take a road that I have never taken before. Little did I know then that this road would one day lead the shy little ten-year-old me into a wonderland; it led me to meet all of you here today. I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that it isn’t so terrifying to venture into the unknown at all; all you need is a little courage and determination. See where my road has led me, and bravely take your first step.
Firstly, I am glad to be here, let me introduce myself. My name is Li Wei, my English name is Aleevon. I am 22 years old. I come from the northwest of China, the most ancient city in China——Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi Province. I am studying in the Foreign Language department of Minjiang University situated in Fu Zhou of Fujian Province.
I cross the whole of China to Study because I want to redefine myself; I want to stand on my own two feet. So I left my beloved home town, and started a new life in the southeast of China.
In the past 3 years, I learnt a lot about myself. I never knew that I could have a charming voice, but later I became a Broadcaster on the Campus Broadcasting Station; I never thought that I could have the courage to go on stage, but later I became the First place winner in Campus Host Competition and still do the host every now and then; I never thought that I could be an Inspiring person, but later I became the Head of College Students’ Art Ensemble; and I love to dance ever since I was a kid, I never thought I could dance professionally, but on campus, I became a cheerleader in our cheerleading squad, and we competed throughout the country, from provincial to regional, to the nationals.
I have found a new me in the past 3 years, a new me that I never knew before, and I am still surprising myself. So that’s me, an inspired young man, a cheerleader who will always smile even in the days of despair.
dear teacher, dear students:
hello everybody!
my topic today is "making the self-confidence."
thomas edison once said: "confidence is the first secret of success." yes, in life, we can not do without self-confidence everywhere. a person without faith, is bound to be abandoned by the society of a person, a person has been abandoned by successful, one was abandoned by the people themselves! therefore, we can say without hesitation: self-confidence is a person's soul!
self-confidence does not equal arrogance. it is a determination, has the power over life and death. never blindly self-confidence, it is hard honing the ability of the condensed. ability is like the crown, it is only mounted on a self-confident fengyun sparkling diamonds, will become eye-catching and gorgeous. similarly, there is no ability to foil, and let confidence no matter how brilliant, but also like the loss of green flowers, value greatly reduced.
i believe we all heard of "with confidence" the idiom story! good at the northern song painter painting paper with bamboo, when pen to paper without thinking each time they claimed a life-like bamboo map. how did he do it? it turned out that his daily observation of the bamboo hut, seasons, his unshakeable. over time, the length of bamboo thickness, leaf shape color, he is familiar with the heart, naturally, put the bamboo painted superb.
this is the power of self-confidence!
how, if there is no confidence to support him, to encourage him, even though the text was the same with earth-shattering, then do not believe in their own strength and what is the use? he would be buried in the chinese long history of five thousand years in the dust.
self-confidence can pass through time and space, it come and go like the wind, but in everyone around to stay. but if you can not catch it, it will as the yellow river water gone.
in life, we need to seize confidence. hold self-confidence, we can turn in the highest satisfaction of life; in growth, we need to seize confidence. hold self-confidence is the most perfect pass into the society; in the struggle, we need to seize confidence. hold self-confidence, success is not far away in front of you!
Dear judges:
I am very glad to make a speech here ! Today I'd like to talk something about English.
I love English. English language is now used everywhere in the world. It has become the most common language on Internet and for international trade. Learning English makes me confident and brings me great pleasure.
When I was seven, my mother sent me to an English school. At there, I played games and sang English songs with other kids . Then I discovered the beauty of the language, and began my colorful dream in the English world.
Everyday, I read English following the tapes. Sometimes, I watch English cartoons.
On the weekend, I often go to the English corner. By talking with different people there, I have made more and more friends as well as improved my oral English.
I hope I can travel around the world someday. I want to go to America to visit Washington Monument, because the president Washington is my idol. Of course, I want to go to London too, because England is where English language developed. If I can ride my bike in Cambridge university, I will be very happy.
I hope I can speak English with everyone in the world. I'll introduce China to them, such as the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Anshan.
On New Year's Eve, our class had a party. The atmosphere was good. It was out of the ordinary from the very begining. The boy student from one bedroom gave an unusual performance. We saw a boy named Li Xinmin turn off all the lights in a sudden snap. Then with three resounding crow of a cock echoing in the hall, the hall was again brightly lit in a snap.
Then, the representative of the bedroom Zhu Guozhang asked us to guess a line of a poem related to the above situation. He added that Li Xinmin alone was born in the year of the dog and the other three were all born in the year of the chicken. They left us all in confusion. And it was our monitor who was quickwitted. He shouted our, “The day breaks as the cock crows three times at dawn.” The hall After that, they had another item.
This time Li Xinmin was placed in the middle of the circle. While he was standing there, the other three stood around him, each bowing down to him at an angle of 120 degrees. It was an idiom. This time I got it right:“The dog stands out among a group of chickens.”
Then we all sang and played games until it was eleven o'clock at night. The old man on night watch came to turn off the lights. We had to tear ourselves away from the party.
From this activity, I discovered that many of our classmates are really talented singers.
“What would you do if you had only one day left to live?”
I asked this question to my young students when teaching English this winter. What were their answers?
“I would watch television!” the first answer. “I would play with the computer!” the second one. “I would play with computer TOO.” The girl finished her sentence perfectly with a serious smile. Indeed how cute and innocent that smile was, but how seriously my heart was hurt. I was too frightened to listen to more answers like that.
Ten years ago, at their age, I had a different answer: I would spend the last day of my life gazing at the face of my dear grandmother until I inscribed every detail of it onto my mind.
When grandmother was getting old and weak, my family bought her a telephone so I could save time and the trouble of traveling to her home by making phone calls instead. Later we bought her a television so she could watch modern dramas by herself. Then grandma must have been, we assumed, very contented and happy.
But I never really knew how grandma felt. She silently passed away without a word one night. When I heard about her death, a chilling pain pierced my empty heart. The pain grew even sharper as I tried to remember in detail exactly how grandma looked and I failed completely! How could I remember? I had not visited her for ages—it seemed like a century! My memories of her dissolved into thin air and leaked away like water.
Even though I have a telephone, can she hear me now?
Even though I might be on television, can she see me now?
Even though I have modern telecommunications, can she still communicate with me now?
With all these “tele”s, I was powerless.
Don't people just love the word of “tele”, which means far away. Indeed this is how modern technology has changed our world. But please don't forget this other word with “tele”: telepathy: which refers to human beings' inborn ability to connect to our loved ones. Our minds are supposed to read each other's minds; our hearts are supposed to feel each other's hearts — and fulfill these without any forms of tool!
But the moment I desperately struggled to remember grandmother's face, the telepathy between her and me had shut down forever. With the help of modern technology, I killed our telepathy.
This shall never happen again! The “tele”s are great inventions. But “telepathy” gives them the warmth of a human face. Let's harness the power of television to excite our kids to develop their telepathy with nature… so that they can read the secret language of flowers. Let's make the telephone lines provoke us to preserve our telepathy with each other, so we can connect in a warm and feeling way. Let technology keep our “telepathy” ALIVE! We need to wake up and make this happen.
I told my grandma's story to those young kids that day. They got very quiet. They asked me for a second chance to answer the question. They had come to a new understanding – that very moment they had made to me and to our future together, a dear promise.
Thank you very much!
she kindled a third match. again shot up the flame; and now she was sitting under a most beautiful christmas tree ,far larger, and far more prettily decked out, than the one she had seen last christmas eve through the glass doors of the rich merchant's house. hundreds of wax-tapers lighted up the green branches, and tiny painted figures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows, looked down from the tree upon her. the child stretched out her hands towards them in delight, and in that moment the lights of the match warm quenched; still, however, the christmas candles burned higher and higher， she beheld them beaming like stars in heaven; one of them fell, the lights streaming behind it like a long, fiery tail.
“now some one is dying,” said the little girl, softly, for she had been told by her old grandmother， the only person who had ever been kind to her, and who was now dead that whenever a star falls an immortal spirit returns to the god who gave it.
she struck yet another match against the wall; it flamed up, and surrounded by its light, appeared before her that same dear grandm
A black boy in Wine factory guard oak his father. Every morning, he wipes a clean bucket, then the rows of neatly placed. Make him angry, often overnight, the wind took him neatly arranged barrel blown reel right and left.
The little boy was very sad and cried. The father touched the boy's head and said, "son, don't cry, we can find a way to conquer the wind"
The little boy sat on the edge of the barrel and wiped the tears to think, think for a long time has finally come up with a solution, he from the edge of the well choose a barrel and a barrel of water, then pour them into the empty barrel, and then he was very upset to go home to bed. For second days, just before dawn the little boy, hurriedly climb up, he ran to the place where the vats, the oak a are arranged neatly, no one was blown over by the wind, no one has been blown crooked. The little boy laughed, he said to his father: "to wooden barrels to be blown, will increase the weight of the bucket." the boy's father smiled approvingly.
Yes, we can not change the wind, the world can not change a lot of things, but we can change ourselves, to increase their own, so that we can adapt to change, not to be defeated!
Westminster Abbey in the basement, the tomb of an Anglican Bishop wrote such a sentence: when I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not be changed, so I will focus on the so some, it only changed my country! But my country seems I cannot change. When I arrived in twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I decided to change only my family, those closest to me, but alas! They don't accept change. Now I on his deathbed, I suddenly Realize: if I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family. Then, in their inspiration and encouragement, I may change my country. And then, who knows, maybe I can change the whole world.
Life is like water, people can only adapt to the environment. If you can't change the environment, change yourself, the only way to overcome more difficulties and overcome more setbacks, self realization. If can not see their own shortcomings and deficiencies, just blindly blame the environment, so as to change the situation of hope in the changing environment this is really, in vain.
Although we can not change the world, but we can change ourselves, let us with love and wisdom to face all the environment
thank you, mr. chairman.
mr. chairman, i join my colleague mr. rangel in thanking you for giving the junior members of this committee the glorious opportunity of sharing the pain of this inquiry. mr. chairman, you are a strong man, and it has not been easy but we have tried as best we can to give you as much assistance as possible.
earlier today, we heard the beginning of the preamble to the constitution of the united states: "we, the people." it's a very eloquent beginning. but when that document was completed on the seventeenth of september in 1787, i was not included in that "we, the people." i felt somehow for many years that george washington and alexander hamilton just left me out by mistake. but through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, i have finally been included in "we, the people."
today i am an inquisitor. an hyperbole would not be fictional and would not overstate the solemnness that i feel right now. my faith in the constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. and i am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction, of the constitution.
"who can so properly be the inquisitors for the nation as the representatives of the nation themselves?" "the subjects of its jurisdiction are those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men."¹ and that's what we're talking about. in other words, [the jurisdiction comes] from the abuse or violation of some public trust.
it is wrong, i suggest, it is a misreading of the constitution for any member here to assert that for a member to vote for an article of impeachment means that that member must be convinced that the president should be removed from office. the constitution doesn't say that. the powers relating to impeachment are an essential check in the hands of the body of the legislature against and upon the encroachments of the executive. the division between the two branches of the legislature, the house and the senate, assigning to the one the right to accuse and to the other the right to judge, the framers of this constitution were very astute. they did not make the accusers and the judgers -- and the judges the same person.
we know the nature of impeachment. we've been talking about it awhile now. it is chiefly designed for the president and his high ministers to somehow be called into account. it is designed to "bridle" the executive if he engages in excesses. "it is designed as a method of national inquest into the conduct of public men."² the framers confided in the congress the power if need be, to remove the president in order to strike a delicate balance between a president swollen with power and grown tyrannical, and preservation of the independence of the executive.
the nature of impeachment: a narrowly channeled exception to the separation-of-powers maxim. the federal convention of 1787 said that. it limited impeachment to high crimes and misdemeanors and discounted and opposed the term "maladministration." "it is to be used only for great misdemeanors," so it was said in the north carolina ratification convention. and in the virginia ratification convention: "we do not trust our liberty to a particular branch. we need one branch to check the other."
"no one need be afraid" -- the north carolina ratification convention -- "no one need be afraid that officers who commit oppression will pass with immunity." "prosecutions of impeachments will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community," said hamilton in the federalist papers, number 65. "we divide into parties more or less friendly or inimical to the accused."³ i do not mean political parties in that sense.
With the development of science and technology, change has penetrated into every aspect of our daily life. To illustrate that, I'd like to make a comparison of these two seemingly insignificant things: milkman and mailman, whose differences indicate our changing way of living with the times.
Home milk delivery has almost gone extinct in China now, also gone with it are the milkmen, who once delivered bottled fresh milk door-to-door. On the other hand, mailman's business or the courier service has thrived as online shopping gains popularity. However, in retrospect, I find something has been lost in this transition, something Shakespeare called as “the milk of human kindness”.
When I was a kid, milk wasn't for sale everywhere. For the families who need it, they depended on the milkmen to take it from the local dairy farms to their houses. In our neighborhood, there was such a milkman, whose arrival was much anticipated by the children and always brought us laughter and joy. He knew the name of every kid and could easily see through our tricks. If we didn't behave, he would side with our parents and threaten to rob us of the nutritious drink. The entire neighborhood was acquainted with him; saw him as a member of the community just like the many residents or street vendors. There was a bond between all of us for it was not only the commodities that been transacted, but also a sense of caring and dependability. And that small box fixed onto our door, other than being a drop-off point for milk; it was a communication junction between the people as we took the initiative to reach out to others.
Fast forward to today, milk is ubiquitous with no dedicated delivery system. But the convenience level of our live has gone up a notch. Almost everything is for sale online, which spares us all the travelling and talking. With a few ready clicks, shopping is done. The rest is left for those speed delivery companies. Usually it's a grumpy mailman, who reaches us through cell phone, urging everyone to pick up their parcels as soon as possible. And the minute the receipt is signed, we rush back to unpack while the courier dashes to the next destination. There is barely a conversation carried out, nor do we feel the need to talk to such a stranger, who changes from time to time frequently. It seems that people are always in a hurry now, though we have more conveniences, still we run short of time to stop and stare, to speak and share.
Call me an old-timer, but I think the personal touch represented by the milkman is what has been missing in the modern society. William Wordsworth once wrote that “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.” Modern technology may have multiplied our possessions or gave us more conveniences, but we run the risk of reducing our values if we lay waste our power of interpersonal relationships.