“Oaths mean something. They are critically important. They matter. They matter when jurors take their oaths; they matter when lawyers, judges, and elected officials take their oaths; they matter when new citizens take the oath of citizenship; they matter when doctors take the Hippocratic Oath; they matter when anyone swears before a notary public. They must matter and that is why witnesses take them - every witness in every case. And it is do important; it is perjury if there is lying and perjury is a crime…
Even children understand that lying is wrong. If a witness lies, innocent people can go to jail or prison, people can literally get away with murder, civil litigants who deserve money may not get it or may get money they don’t deserve. And lying cannot be tolerated even if a judge or jury sees through it.”.
After I read this speech, I chose this portion, since it seemed to “jump out at me”. In this paragraph, I saw some good examples of logos and ethos. The first paragraph above was all logos. She explained the importance of taking an oath, and about how oaths taken outside of court are just as important as the ones taken in court. Well, I don’t mean to be rude, but isn’t obvious. Oaths were created for a reason, and if people are not going to swear by them, then they don’t have a purpose. This a great example of logos, because it shows how people need to be reminded of the obvious things, since something like this which is redundant must be important enough that it should be known by all.
The second part of the quote, seemed to be a little bit logos and ethos wrapped up into a couple sentences. This part talks about lying, and the effects of lies. The logos was clearly shown in the effects of lying on the witness stand, and also when she said how children understand that lying is wrong. Everybody knows that lying is wrong, but that does not mean that everybody will follow the rules, by not lying on the witness stand. That’s when temptation comes into play, and it causes the lying to happen very often. Lying does not just happen only in court, but it happens everywhere, in all aspects of life.
The ethos comes in with the line about how causes consequences of losing or gaining money, and losing or keep an innocent alive. If someone has enough integrity and morality then they will understand that quote completely, but sadly, not everyone does understand and listen. Since the economy in some parts of the U.S. is really bad, some people are willing to do anything to get money or kill someone to survive. When I first read this speech, I thought why is this so important, but then I looked at it again. I realized that of course I think this speech is not important, since I was raised in such a safe and privileged environment that I don’t need to steal or kill somebody to stay alive.
Without these rule and their repetitiveness, the world would be more corrupt then it already is, which I cannot even imagine it that way.
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