Mary Fisher Aids

1992 Republican National Convention Address: A Whisper of AIDS" by Mary Fisher (1992)

Mary Fisher begins her speech with a metaphor by saying, "I asked the Republican Party to lift the shroud of silence which has been draped over the issue of HIV and AIDS." Fisher designed this speech with the intention of educating and make people aware of the dangers of HIV and AIDS. Fisher wants to draw an emotional response from the listener, and emphasize her message. To better accomplish her goals, Fisher makes use of rhetorical devices more than biases and fallacies although they too are present. Another rhetorical device Fisher used was parallelism. In fact she used this numerous times. The first was, " I bear a message of challenge, not self-congratulation. I want your attention, not your applause." She later says, "It does not care whether you are Democrat or Republican, it does not ask whether you are black or white, male or female, gay or straight, young or old."

Alliteration is another rhetorical device Fisher uses to capture the listener's interest. She says"Worldwide, forty million, sixty million, or a hundred million infections will be counted in the coming few years." There is no numerical accuracy in the prior statement but it does captivate the listener with the repeated use of the word "million." Another is, "Because I was not hemophiliac, I was not at risk. Because I was not gay, I was not at risk. Because I did not inject drugs, I was not at risk." Once again she uses repetition in order to emphasize her claim.

Since AIDS is a dangerous virus, Fisher also includes scare tactics when she says, "The reality of AIDS is brutally clear" and, "This is not a distant threat. It is a present danger." One example of a bias was evident though when she says, "Adolescents don't give each other cancer or heart disease because they believe they are in love, but HIV is different."

The speaker addresses her arguments by "speaking from experience" as she is too a victim of this HIV virus. Her arguments are very effective because she gives examples of the dangers of not being educated on the dangers of this virus that is relevant to the listener and always includes herself as part of the whole. An example of this is when she says, "It is not you who should feel shame. It is we - we

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