Like actors, speakers hope for scripts with “moments:” Speechwriters can provide them

I once heard an accomplished actor interviewed about what he and other actors hope for in the scripts they receive. He said actors hope for “moments.” They don’t expect an entire script to be filled with deathless prose, he said. Instead, they look for a magic “moment” or two when they are given something important, profound, funny or wonderful to say that illuminates the human condition and resonates with the audience.

I thought about this recently when a fellow communicator asked me to name my favorite speeches and/or speakers. Jesse Jackson immediately came to mind; he has always held a special place in my heart as a speaker of passion, power and poetry.

In his address at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta on July 19, 1988, Jackson spoke about how hard the poor really work. “They catch the early bus,” he said. I was able to quote this line to my communications friend because it has stayed with me from the day I first heard it, 23 years ago.

“They catch the early bus” came to mind recently when former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused of sexually assaulting a housekeeper at a Sofitel hotel in New York City.

When Strauss-Kahn made a court appearance to face charges, a number of New York City hotel maids came out to show support for the victim. This is the picture The New York Times ran of them.

It’s clear the poor people who “catch the early bus” are still mostly members of minority groups.  Little has changed in this regard since Jackson’s remarks. Here’s what he said in 1988:

“Most poor people are not on welfare. Some of them are illiterate and can’t read the want-ad sections. And when they can, they can’t find a job that matches the address. They work hard every day.

“I know. I live amongst them. I’m one of them. I know they work. I’m a witness. They catch the early bus. They work every day.

“They raise other people’s children. They work every day.

“They clean the streets. They work every day. They drive dangerous cabs. They work every day. They change the beds you slept in in these hotels last night and can’t get a union contract. They work every day.

“No, no, they are not lazy! Someone must defend them because it’s right, and they cannot speak for themselves. They work in hospitals. I know they do. They wipe the bodies of those who are sick with fever and pain. They empty their bedpans. They clean out their commodes. No job is beneath them, and yet when they get sick they cannot lie in the bed they made up every day. America, that is not right. We are a better Nation than that. We are a better Nation than that.”

Reading the stories about the attack on the hotel maid and seeing that picture in The Times reminded me that great lines from great speeches can live far beyond the moment. Sometimes they are so true for so long they become timeless.

“They catch the early bus” is one such line. It is a magic moment.

In the next speech you write, look to provide your speaker with a “moment” – a true, heartfelt, vulnerable moment that expresses an eternal, human truth.

You will never know how long it may live on and how many people it may affect over time.