Harmonious Communication

19th August 2024

Wishing all the readers 'Happy Rakshabandhan' - Day of universal brotherhood

अविस्तरम् असंदिग्धम् अविलम्बितम् अव्यथम् | उरःस्थम् कण्ठगम् वाक्यम् वर्तते मध्यमे स्वरम् || Valmiki Ramayan 4.-3-31

Listening, Short and precise, Unambiguous, Not delayed, Harmonious, Speech raising from the chest and coming from the throat and conveying in comfortable middle pitch are the first seven attributes of effective communication skill, elaborated by Lord Ram as the characteristics of Hanuman’s speech.

Skill 3 – अव्यथम् – Not dissonant, Firm

Vyatham means dissonant, harsh and painful. Avyatham means not painful ie harmonious. Being harmonious means, multiple things including firm, musical, not harsh, etc. Your communication should be firm but at the same time pleasant. Communication should not be sarcastic and should not hurt anyone.

#IHaveADream

We learnt from ‘The Speech that saved Nike’ in the last episode. That was one of the best in corporate history but the speech for this episode is the greatest in the history of social revolution.

‘I Have a Dream’ is one of the greatest speeches in American history. Delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. in Washington D.C. in 1963, the speech is a powerful rallying cry for racial equality and for a fairer and equal world in which African Americans will be as free as white Americans.

The occasion for King’s speech was part of #MarchOnWashington, which gathered around 210,000 African Americans at the Washington Monument in August 1963, before marching to the Lincoln Memorial. They were marching as part of the centenary of #EmancipationProclamation seeking to end segregation of white and black americans so that black Americans can be treated the same as white Americans

1963 was the centenary of the Emancipation Proclamation, in which then US President Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) had freed the African slaves in the United States in 1863.

‘I Have a Dream’ - summary

‘I Have a Dream’ speech is very inspirational but pretty long one and hence I cannot cover the text of the speech here. Full text of the speech is available in Internet for anyone interested to refer to. I am giving here highlights of that famous speech.

King begins his speech by reminding his audience that it’s a century since Emancipation Proclamation. King points out that blacks are still not free because of racial segregation and discrimination.

America is a wealthy country, and yet many Black Americans live in poverty. It is as if the Black Americans are in exile in their own land. He starts as a revolutionary but reiterates his commitment to the constitution and the development of USA.

King praises the ‘magnificent words’ of the USA constitution and the #DeclarationOfIndependence. King compares these documents to a promissory note, because they contain the promise that all men, including Black men, will be guaranteed what the Declaration of Independence calls ‘inalienable rights’: namely, ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’.

King urges America to rise out of the ‘valley’ of segregation to the ‘sunlit path of racial justice’. He uses the word ‘brotherhood’ to refer to all Americans, since all men and women are God’s children. He also repeatedly emphasizes the urgency of the moment. This is not some brief moment of anger but a necessary new start for America. However, King cautions his audience not to give way to bitterness and hatred, but to fight for justice in the right manner, with dignity and discipline.

He makes it very clear that his objective is not to sow hatred and anarchy. King recognizes that many white Americans who are also poor and marginalized feel a kinship with the Civil Rights movement, so all Americans should join together in the cause.

Martin Luther King then comes to the most famous part of his speech, in which he uses the phrase ‘I have a dream’ to begin successive sentences (a rhetorical device known as #anaphora). King outlines the form that his dream, or ambition or wish for a better America, takes.

His dream, he tells his audience, is ‘deeply rooted’ in the American Dream: that notion that anybody, regardless of their background, can become prosperous and successful in the United States.

In his dream of a better future, King sees the descendants of former Black slaves and the descendants of former slave owners united, sitting and eating together. He has a dream that one day his children will live in a country where they are judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Even in Mississippi and Alabama, states which are riven by racial injustice and hatred, people of all races will live together in harmony. King then broadens his dream out into ‘our hope’: a collective aspiration and endeavor.

King uses anaphora again, repeating the phrase ‘let freedom ring’ several times in succession to suggest how jubilant America will be on the day that such freedoms are ensured. And when this happens, Americans will be able to join together and be closer to the day when they can sing: ‘Free at last. Free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.’

What a powerful communication!! Unambiguous, Timely, Firm but harmonious. He repeatedly emphasized on the need to fight for social justice but clearly mentions not at the cost of hatred and violence.

He reportedly stayed up until 4am the night before he was due to give his ‘I Have a Dream’, writing it out in longhand. Such was his commitment.

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#PositiveNewsPage

Having read the summary of the inspirational speech from Martin Luther King Jr., I am inspired to cover a fearless African American rights activist, Ruby Bridges, for the motivation page.

Born on September 8, 1954, Bridges was the oldest of five children for Lucille and Abon Bridges, farmers in Tylertown, Mississippi. When Ruby was two years old, her parents moved their family to New Orleans, Louisiana in search of better work opportunities. Ruby’s birth year coincided with the US Supreme Court’s landmark ruling ending racial segregation in public schools. It was a common practice to have separate schools for whites and blacks during that time. Remember this was before the famous 'I have a dream' speech.

Nonetheless, southern states continued to resist integration, and in 1959, Ruby attended a segregated New Orleans kindergarten. A year later, however, a federal court ordered Louisiana to desegregate. The school district created entrance exams for African American students to see whether they could compete academically at the all-white school. Ruby and five other students passed the exam.

Her parents were torn about whether to let her attend the all-white William Frantz Elementary School, a few blocks from their home. Her father resisted, fearing for his daughter’s safety; her mother, however, wanted Ruby to have the educational opportunities that her parents had been denied. Meanwhile, the school district dragged its feet, delaying her admittance until November 14. Two of the other students decided not to leave their school at all; the other three were sent to the all-white McDonough Elementary School.

Ruby and her mother were escorted by four federal marshals to the school every day that year. She walked past crowds screaming vicious slurs at her. She spent her first day in the principal’s office due to the chaos created as angry white parents pulled their children from the school. Ardent segregationists withdrew their children permanently. Barbara Henry, a white Boston native, was the only teacher willing to accept Ruby. Ruby ate lunch alone and sometimes played with her teacher at recess, but she never missed a day of school that year.

While some families supported her bravery—and some northerners sent money to aid her family—others protested throughout the city. The Bridges family suffered for their courage: Abon lost his job, and grocery stores refused to sell to Lucille. Her share-cropping grandparents were evicted from the farm where they had lived for a quarter-century. Over time, other African American students enrolled. In 1964, artist Norman Rockwell celebrated her courage with a painting of that first day entitled, “The Problem We All Live With.”

Ruby graduated from a desegregated high school, became a travel agent, married and had four sons. She was reunited with her first teacher, Henry, in the mid 1990s, and for a time the pair did speaking engagements together. Ruby later wrote about her early experiences in two books and received the Carter G. Woodson Book Award.

A lifelong activist for racial equality, in 1999, Ruby established The Ruby Bridges Foundation to promote tolerance and create change through education. In 2000, she was made an honorary deputy marshal in a ceremony in Washington, DC.

Utsaham and fearlessness right from the age of six yearning for a change and betterment of life.

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Conceived, compiled and posted as a weekly newsletter #MondayMusings in #LinkedIn every Monday by Jaganathan T (www.authorjaganathan.com) so that the readers can start their work week in a positive note. Subscribe, Read, Learn, Grow, Like, Share and #SpreadPositivity.

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