In Ronald Sullivan's astonishing October 2016 TED talk with over 500,000 views he recollects his many experiences with releasing those who were wrongly convicted and sentenced to jail for crimes and makes his point that criminal cases should be looked at more closely because "people make justice happen" (Sullivan), it does not just happen and so people must make justice every day. Sullivan's speech is very intellectual and inspiring and he builds ethos in his speech when he states that he is not only a Harvard law professor but also he has been spending the last few years achieving the release of those who are innocent. As a very intellectual person Sullivan uses both pathos and logos in his speech by stating facts such as the one at 3:20 where "over the course of the first year we found about thirteen wrongful convictions... and we released all of them. It was the most in New York history" (Sullivan). Sullivan uses pathos a lot more though because he tells a lot of stories to bring out emotions in the crowd such as the opening one but the most important one was at 7:31, one man had gotten to walk free but "Mr. Stuckey died in prison at 34 years old and his mother sat at counsel table in his place... She just rocked at the table saying 'I knew my baby didn't do this. I knew my baby didn't do this' " (Sullivan). This is the most jarring emotional story he uses because its the only one where the wrongfully imprisoned did not survive and the audience has to see the pain and stress that put on the family, all because the case was not done correctly.
One of the things that makes Sullivan such a talented speaker is how he articulates his main point. At 8:03 he states "People make justice happen. Justice is not a thing that just descends from above and makes everything right. If it did, Mr. Stuckey wouldn't have died in prison"(Sullivan). As he articulates this point he uses these extravagant hand gestures and voices to captivate the audience and then brings them back to normal, to reality, with something true and sad. Another thing Sullivan does quite well in his speech is his repetition of the phrase "just a minute". In minutes eight and nine Sullivan brings the point across that just a small extra look, one extra minute could have saved so many of these people from years of pain. So he repeats this phrase multiple times so the audience can understand how drastic that minute really is in the grand scheme of people's lives. Sullivan's speech seems to be mostly aimed toward the average working class because of the lesson he gives at the end that people should make a little justice in their lives by making people happy. Two things the audience learns from his speech are that the criminal justice system is not always in the right, as proven by all of his stories of those wrongly imprisoned, and society has to check the justice system or else these stories will keep happening. A good question fro Sullivan is has he seen a racial or social bias in the criminal justice system and wrongful conviction? One way to improve his speech would be for Sullivan to give more background on the criminal justice system so the audience could understand how all of these stories could even happen.
Sullivan's speech relates to the American dream because part of the American dream is justice being served. Justice is a big part of American life but when the wrong people feel its wrath the country gets confused because true justice was never served. Sullivan stresses taking that extra minute in criminal cases if that is your job, or in your day to day life to bring true justice and happiness to the world which is the true version of the American dream of justice. This relates to the global dream because in the global dream no one suffers or rots away, especially because of something they did not do. Sullivan is trying to achieve that in the world by making sure no one is ever kept in prison when they are innocent and in the global dream and true American dream of justice no one is put in prison that is innocent. Sullivan's speech is similar to "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson because Stevenson and Sullivan have both dedicated their life to helping innocent people be freed from their wrongful imprisonment, and they succeed many times but just as Mr. Stuckey died in prison, Stevenson also had a case where the man ended up dying in prison. The concept of justice not carried out right is also very similar to "The Great Gatsby" by Scott Fitzgerald. Not only was no one ever arrested for the death of Myrtle, but George Wilson thought he knew he was driving the car and so he shot Gatsby and Gatsby died even though he was innocent of the crime.
I did like this speech because it outlined a common flaw in the American justice system, laziness. Half of the people on the cases were too lazy to figure out the true criminal and so the wrong people were convicted no matter what age they were. Some of this could be due to corruption or racism but a big part of it is investigators ignoring facts such as receipts so that they do not have to keep looking for a criminal and I feel this speech highlights that and shows one way to fix it being Sullivan's review unit. After this speech I'm taking away that as a whole this society should bring more justice to each other because so many people still do not receive any justice and cannot make it on their own so we as a community have to help them overpower that lack of justice. As a whole we can make justice for everyone and make things right but it takes work from all sides to make justice happen.
One of the things that makes Sullivan such a talented speaker is how he articulates his main point. At 8:03 he states "People make justice happen. Justice is not a thing that just descends from above and makes everything right. If it did, Mr. Stuckey wouldn't have died in prison"(Sullivan). As he articulates this point he uses these extravagant hand gestures and voices to captivate the audience and then brings them back to normal, to reality, with something true and sad. Another thing Sullivan does quite well in his speech is his repetition of the phrase "just a minute". In minutes eight and nine Sullivan brings the point across that just a small extra look, one extra minute could have saved so many of these people from years of pain. So he repeats this phrase multiple times so the audience can understand how drastic that minute really is in the grand scheme of people's lives. Sullivan's speech seems to be mostly aimed toward the average working class because of the lesson he gives at the end that people should make a little justice in their lives by making people happy. Two things the audience learns from his speech are that the criminal justice system is not always in the right, as proven by all of his stories of those wrongly imprisoned, and society has to check the justice system or else these stories will keep happening. A good question fro Sullivan is has he seen a racial or social bias in the criminal justice system and wrongful conviction? One way to improve his speech would be for Sullivan to give more background on the criminal justice system so the audience could understand how all of these stories could even happen.
Sullivan's speech relates to the American dream because part of the American dream is justice being served. Justice is a big part of American life but when the wrong people feel its wrath the country gets confused because true justice was never served. Sullivan stresses taking that extra minute in criminal cases if that is your job, or in your day to day life to bring true justice and happiness to the world which is the true version of the American dream of justice. This relates to the global dream because in the global dream no one suffers or rots away, especially because of something they did not do. Sullivan is trying to achieve that in the world by making sure no one is ever kept in prison when they are innocent and in the global dream and true American dream of justice no one is put in prison that is innocent. Sullivan's speech is similar to "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson because Stevenson and Sullivan have both dedicated their life to helping innocent people be freed from their wrongful imprisonment, and they succeed many times but just as Mr. Stuckey died in prison, Stevenson also had a case where the man ended up dying in prison. The concept of justice not carried out right is also very similar to "The Great Gatsby" by Scott Fitzgerald. Not only was no one ever arrested for the death of Myrtle, but George Wilson thought he knew he was driving the car and so he shot Gatsby and Gatsby died even though he was innocent of the crime.
I did like this speech because it outlined a common flaw in the American justice system, laziness. Half of the people on the cases were too lazy to figure out the true criminal and so the wrong people were convicted no matter what age they were. Some of this could be due to corruption or racism but a big part of it is investigators ignoring facts such as receipts so that they do not have to keep looking for a criminal and I feel this speech highlights that and shows one way to fix it being Sullivan's review unit. After this speech I'm taking away that as a whole this society should bring more justice to each other because so many people still do not receive any justice and cannot make it on their own so we as a community have to help them overpower that lack of justice. As a whole we can make justice for everyone and make things right but it takes work from all sides to make justice happen.