She once again uses antithesis to stress the urgency of AIDS, and elaborates on some details and proliferation of the disease. Its personified rise to dominance could not have happened without human ignorance, lack of AIDS education, prejudice and silence. This powerful phrase makes an impact in the minds of the audience members, because they know that deep down, she is completely right. The threat of AIDS is indeed partially their own fault. By listing these human vices, she appeals convincingly to a common guilty conscience, making listeners even more eager to listen to what solutions she offers.
The following paragraphs become even more powerful, emotional and convincing. She personifies AIDS as a common enemy, and uses the metaphor of stereotypes as refuge, yet immediately denounces the protection they can offer because AIDS does not care for stereotypes. Her use of hypophora, and religious allusion reject the dehumanization of AIDS victims, stating point-blank that they are human, and should be treated with the love and compassion they deserve, not hate and inferiority. She makes a very powerful point when she states that the unequal treatment of AIDS victims is arbitrary. Nobody is benefitting from prejudice and hate. Meanness and cruelty won’t make the disease go away. She uses a series of antitheses to condemn hypocrisy and to call for immediate action. “My call to the nation is a plea for awareness” makes it crystal clear that her sole purpose is to raise awareness and find a cure. It reveals her passion of the issue, and displays her sincerity to her audience. This is all made especially effective with her decorum, the appeal to the highly regarded family values of the south. Using the responsibility of the parent and the future of the children to relate to and motivate her audience, she captures their attention, making them much more enthusiastic about her cause. The message of the last antithesis is clear—everybody is at risk, no exception.
Using the parallel structure of “Because I was a…I was not at risk”, she breaks down the common stereotypes associated with AIDS victims, and demolishes other ways people thought they could get the disease. By using these stereotypes, she quite accurately demonstrates the average American’s views towards AIDS, using their perceived thought process allows her to build on her relationship with her audience and at the same time show them the fault in their logic. The repetition of “I was not at risk” is very ironic, not only because she was none of the fore-mentioned, yet she, a “respectable white mother”, has the disease. Similarly, Pastor Nemoeller’s quote uses parallel structure and repetition to emphasize the need for someone to step up, to spread the word, to protest against AIDS. She subtly compares herself to the Pastor, hinting that if she doesn’t take this stand, no one will, and it will be too late. The quote adds a lot of substance and credibility of sorts to Fishers speech, along with high emotional values with the World War II allusion, further bolstering her argument—something must be done.
The historical anecdote serves as a moral. “If you believe you are safe, you are at risk” is repeated to emphasize its importance. The dark metaphor of AIDS as a killer stalking children is especially powerful because parents of all generations can relate to that fear. By saying that nobody is safe in America, she makes the disease seem uncomfortable real and close to life. She employs a paradox when saying “Until we genuinely…we are a nation at risk”, arguing that unless people become aware of the risk of AIDS, they will be at the mercy of ignorance. She calls for the nation to transcend racial and religious barriers in a unified effort to raise awareness and stop the epidemic.
“Tonight, HIV marches resolutely…and young children” once again personifies the virus in a determined rampage to smite the young, while the imagery that follows is horrific for the audience to picture. They effectively reflect the dire situation at hand, and listeners can sense the urgency creeping up on them.
Fisher now turns away from addressing the general situation, instead focusing on her own family, a living example of a family affected by AIDS, stressing the family frame and using rhetorical virtue to further appeal to the family oriented values of the South. She is open about the hard truth of the future of her family, that her children could become orphans, which the audience perceives as a show of sincerity, making them all the more sympathetic and eager to help. With personal and emotional descriptions of her own family members and how they cope with her disease bring listeners closer, and breaks down the barrier between fisher and her audience, creating a stronger emotional bond that makes them more willing to act. She once again uses contrast between herself with her loving family with other who are not so lucky, and attempts to delve into their minds, understanding their fear, sorrow and grief. She addresses them personally and sincerely, that they at not at fault, rather it is those who made them feel fear who should be ashamed. Through this she stresses the importance of getting over prejudice and ignorance to view AIDS victims as actual humans. She puts responsibility on everybody through use of “we”, and through the use of another antithesis expresses the necessity of the entire population in taking effective action to provide a better future for the children.
Possibly one of the most candid and personal parts of the speech, the last few paragraphs expres Fisher’s hopes for her children. Her openess and courage are astounding, using herself as a living example. She uses syncrisis to redefine courage, and shares her hopes that her children may have the courage to stand forward as she has. Although it is possibly a cleverly disguised form of self praise, she certainly would have been able to move her audience by establishing the motherly figure. Her pledge to her children is no less moving. She shares little behavioral traits of her children, showing her loving, motherly side, and obtains the audiences sympathy, while stressing that she as human as she is, is but one of millions of ostracized victims of AIDS
Concluding, she makes a simple request, for those who have been affected in any way by AIDS to have courage, and for the million who are strong, to cast aside the shroud over their eyes and show compassion and sound action. The request is very brief, only two sentences, but they are strong emotionally and compassionate, and does a lot in the pathos department.
Her final appeal is even simpler but no less powerful. She dreams of a day where her children will not be scared of the word “AIDS” even if she dies from it. Her only hope is a community where AIDS will not be fear, shamed or looked down upon.
Fisher’s views on the HIV/AIDS issue created a turning point in the Republican Party and their views towards the disease. She was not only able to change the traditional mindset of how AIDS sufferers were viewed, but also managed to convey her message with indescribable tone and emotion that was able to reach out to a large audience. Through use of vivid, beautiful and emotive figurative language, allusions, rhetorical devices, appeal to pathos, virtue decorum et cetera, Fisher creates a powerful speech that reaches out and connects to all listeners, motivating them to see AIDS in a different light, helping them shed their stereotypes. She rallies them to raise awareness about AIDS, and asks they be compassionate and accepting, and educate themelves to find a solution to rid the fear and ignorance surrounding it.