Persuasive Speech: Reconcile And Progress

Reconcile and Progress: Miltiades- Kaidy Li
All Athenians shall forgive the past wrongs of those who aided the Thirty and will file no lawsuits against them. My fellow Athenians, dwelling too much on the past will surely hinder Athens in the future. If we focus on every trifling act committed, we will forget the real danger looming ahead of us- division. Nothing more would please Sparta and our enemies than to see Athens weak, suffering, and in turmoil. Considering all the land, young men, and possessions that we Athenians have already lost, can we afford to be bickering amongst ourselves over past actions which cannot be undone? We must forgive our brothers, forget their lapse of judgement in aiding the Thirty Tyrants, and move on to
Those of you have had to deal with frivolous lawsuits from slaves surely know how much time being in court takes up. If we expend all of our energy by being bitter towards our fellow Athenians, we will detract from the numerous, urgent matters at hand. Remember when Athens nearly starved to death just a few years ago while cowering from Sparta’s blood thirsty army (Carnes et al., p.43)? We have stepped away from the verge of starvation, but we still suffer from a tremendous food insecurity today. For decades, we made ends meet by maintaining a stronghold over the Black Sea with our navy, extracting grains to feed our people (Carnes et al., p.35). However, you can barely even call our twelve measly triremes a fleet, much less a navy. It would do us well to take the time to ensure that Athens re-establishes a reliable source of grains so that our people aren’t walking the Agora with lifeless eyes and emaciated faces. Or we could take the time to rebuild our most valuable defender of the city- the Long Walls. If Sparta attacked us again, we would not be able to cling to life by hiding behind our reliable city walls like we did for the last war (Carnes et al., p.52). We must ensure that the our city-state’s defenses are in place and secure in the event that Corinth or Thebes try to make good on their word and come raze Athens to the ground. Perhaps we could even consider spending our time by reconstructing Athens’ democracy to ensure that we never foolishly walk into such a fatal war ever again. Regardless of how we spend Athens’ precious time, I propose that we not waste our time filing trifling lawsuits against those who aided the Thirty Tyrants. Furthermore, now is the perfect time to quietly pick our polis back up and return it to the venerable position it once held without worry of interruption. Luckily for us, Sparta is