Best_Speech_Ever

General Purpose: To persuade Specific Purpose: To persuade my listeners to carry a baseball bat at certain times. I. Introduction: a. Attention Getter and relate to audience: So you’re walking in a part of town you don’t know, hiking thru a forest, or living after an apocalypse world and all of the sudden your attack. Oh snap. You’re going to die, or not. b. Maybe you are one of the wiser people in life who would be properly prepared, meaning you would be equipped with a baseball bat. Most likely not. So listen up. c. Credibility: I recently researched and found the several survival guides and experts that agree that a baseball can come in handy at times. d. Thesis Statement: Today I would like to try and persuade you to carry a baseball bat when you are in certain situations, emphasis on certain, not all the time. e. Preview of Main Points: There are a few topics that I want to go over with you so you could realize the benefit of having a baseball bat at your side in particular scenarios. I will start with acceptance of just carrying a bat, describe what would happen if didn’t have one, and finally the benefit of having a bat. Transition: First off, theres nothing wrong with having a bat at specific times. II. Body: f. Need for change: I propose the idea we do carry baseball bat on ourselves when we do go out (and the happening has the possibly being slightly dangerous). g. There is such a controversy in our society about carrying weapons. I do see the side of having guns in everyday situations is a bit scary and I personally wouldn’t carry one. But I also see the side of a person wanting to have a sense of protection. 1 **SOURCE 1: Since 2001, most Americans have favored stricter gun laws, though support has slightly dropped in recent years: 54 percent favored stricter laws in 2001, compared with 50 percent in 2007, according to Gallup polling. 2. Now, a recent poll reveals a sudden drop -- only 39 percent of Americans now favor stricter gun laws, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll. 3. Well in my opinion bats are less dangerous than guns. And we do see that there is a decline in people caring about guns, so reasonable to believe that a baseball bat is acceptable to carry when deemed necessary. Transition: I will now talk about the possible events that qualify to be an acceptable time. C. Present Plan: I’m going lay out some circumstances minus the proper protection weapon. 1. Most common of situations. You’re somewhere in the world, and you just don’t feel safe. Dark, eerie streets, or you could be in the dangerous part of France where they kidnap American girls, have yall seen the movie ‘Taken”, scary stuff. And say you’re in the process of being kidnapped. You could scream for help or freeze from being shocked. Now if you had a baseball bat.. things could be different.. 2. Moving on, say you’re on a rock climbing field trip, at the local Wendy’s, or strolling thru the forest. And a bear attacks. Like I said earlier. Oh snap. **SOURCE 2 says he bear needs to identify you as a person, so talk in low tones and slowly wave your arms. From the University of Andy, Professor Andy Botwin suggest asking these questions ‘Are you a dude in a bear costume' Where did you get that really awesome costume' Are you tied up, unable to speak, in that realistic bear costume' Then if the bear talks back you, the bear is not actually a bear and that person sucks and you can scream not cool dude and go back to your business.” Funny story, when I was living in North Carolina, a friend was taking a summer rock climbing class at the local college. On a field trip, a bear stole the backpack that had the van keys, and they some how found the bear by calling for it. Doesn’t make sense to me really but it’s what I heard, there’s more to the story about how the teacher almost died during the trip, but that has nothing to do with bears. What if the bear doesn’t reply' It does most likely mean that the bear is real and is possibly going to attack you. All you could do is back away slowly, don’t run, or possibly climb a tree. Only options really, you may be asking how would a baseball help when you’re in the position I just described, I’ll answer that in a moment. 3. Last situation, always talked about, the ‘after the end of the world’ world , could be right around the corner depending on what you believe. But point and case, world ends. There could or couldn’t be zombies. If they are, don’t befriend them. They just want to eat your heart for dinner. So you’re living in this new world, zombie creatures are everywhere, it’s dangerous, you know. If you carried a gun you could run out of bullets, or pepper spray, that’s just messy, possibly burn your own eyes in the process. Either way these are flawed methods of protecting yourself against these zombies. Keep in mind **SOURCE 3 ‘A zombie is going to be completely numb to pain and broken bones’. In a moment I’ll get to why a bat would be more suiting to take one out. Transition: I personally think these are unknown but all-to likely to happen. D. Illustrate Benefits: The benefits of carrying a bat in each of those situations is clearly illustrated when told the different outcome due to having item. i. When being physically attack by a human they don’t expect you to have a weapon for defense. Say you get cornered in a dark alley and there is no one around, and you’re frozen for a moment. I’m sure there is a bunch of thoughts running thru your mind, but if you remembered that you grabbed a bat on your way out of the house you can conveniently reach for it and attack the attacker. And walk out of that creepy ally way, why were you even there' 2. take this man for example http://englishrussia.com/images/short_news_3/16.jpg Im not quite sure what he’s doing but I do see a baseball bat and a bear, so I guess we have similar mindsets. And taken from **SOURCE 4“Dropping your pack or an object may distract it (the bear) to give you more time.” And dropping a bat qualifies as an object, so not only back away slowly, drop your bat, toss it, buy your self sometime. 3. We’ve all seen in movies like Zombieland, 28 days later, Dawn of the dead, Shawn of the Dead. There are numerous zombie movies out there. And in all of them the baseball bat has been used. Of course other great defense devices like chainsaws and pianos were used accordingly, but from observations, I’ve noticed the baseball is possibly the second most used weapon (guns being number 1 of course. But with a baseball bat, it will increase your ability to hit. It will be lighter to carry around than any of those, making it more efficient; more effective than a knife, and I would say equivalent as a machete. **SOURCE 5 says ‘Sticks, ax handles and other wooden clubs are good for knocking out a zombie out of way or beating off an individual attack’. Transition: So what now' a. Call to action: The next time you are preparing to leave the house, doing your check list, wallet, phone, keys, consider throwing baseball bat in there. ii. Just imagine your day and see if any possible threats could appear. iii. For example, I thought if I should bring a bat to class tonight. And I deemed this being an unnecessary situation, but maybe if you were to go downtown tonight and you came across a homeless person not as friendly as rackem’ willie, it would be acceptable to have a bat on you… just in case now. DI. Conclusion: So, in conclusion, I’m not saying carry a baseball bat on you when you are going to by your groceries or anything. iv. But According to **SOURCE 6 “As of December 31, 2007, there were 105,229 active missing person records in NCIC. Juveniles under the age of 18 accounted for 54,648 (51.93%) of the records, and 12,362 (11.75%) were for juveniles between the ages of 18 and 20.*” That’s the sad truth, yes. But maybe if those 12000 or so peers of ours had bats on them they could be not missing. It is what it is. v. When it comes to bears now, another tid bit on information. Colors, Brown bears good, blacks bears not. And if you were in battle with a black bear, **SOURCE 7 states “If you want to completely floor the bear, deliver a swift kick or hard strike to it its left hind leg or aim for the top of its neck, just below its jawline.” vi. Well if not being abducted or attacked by a bear, and the world has already ended and somehow you’re still alive and blah blah blah you know the scene. Might as well, live with the thought, rather be safe that sorry. Zombies or not, who knows what could attack, maybe some half squirrel half chicken could be ruling the world. But a bat will come in handy. If it you see yourself possibly being in a treacherous predicament through out your day, bring it. No harm, no foul in being prepared. Schneider, Bill. "Poll: Fewer Americans support stricter gun control laws - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. Web. 07 Dec. 2009. http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/08/gun.control.poll/index.html Mckay, B., & Mckay, K. (2009). The Art of Manliness. City: How "Zombie Survival Guide By OZORT - Zombie Survival & Defense ." Zombie Survival & Defense Wik - Zombie Survival & Defense Wiki. 08 Dec. 2009 . "Bear Safety." Coming Back Alive Home Page. Web. 07 Dec. 2009. . Brooks, M., (2003). The Zombie Survival Guide. New York: Three Rivers Press. "NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person Statistics for 2007." FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation Homepage. 08 Dec. 2009 "Fight a bear - AskMen.com." AskMen.com - Men's Online Magazine. 08 Dec. 2009 .