Best Speech You Have Ever Heard

I was attending a charitable event, it was a baby shower for pregnant homeless teens. One of the organizers had been a young single parent of a down syndrome baby. She was an inspiration because she related to the homeless pregnant teens. She said "I was a young single mother of a down syndrome baby. I didn't come from a great part of town, I didn't have money. I turned my life around and so can you. You probably won't fully appreciate what we've done for you today as you are so young. However as you get older you will understand and appreciate the kindness of these strangers to plan a baby shower for all of you. My hope is that one day you will pay it forward.
It was truthful, sincere, and heartfelt, and not scripted.

I grew up during the civil rights movement so the best speech that I ever heard was from Dr. Martin Luther King's at the Lincoln Memorial site. "I Have a Dream" still has impact to this day.

I was also moved by (believe it or not) Rev. Jesse Jackson's speech at the Democratic National Convention so many years ago. The resounding message was: "I just want to make sense" and I always think about when it's time to vote again.

With the immigration issues this country has right now I've got to say Roosevelt's immigration speech hits very close to heart for me. I understand the emmigration is how this country started but those immigrants became "Americans". Part of my family has not been in this country very long but they made it a point to be Americans. They no longer spoke their language accept in the privacy of their homes.

A brief part of this speech....

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith, becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.

But, this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American . . .
There can be no divided allegiance here.

Any man who says he is an American, but something else also,
isn't an American at all.

We have room but for one flag, the American flag . . .
We have room but for one language, and that is the English language . . .
And we have room for but one sole loyalty...and that is a loyalty to the American people."

President Theodore Roosevelt; January 3, 1919

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

There are many, many great TED speeches, and this one is well paced, and mixes humor and heart-felt speech quite well. You will laugh, and you will cry, and you will learn.