Speeches / Speech topic - Cybercommunication: Progress or Problem? [3]

This is my speech for the Oratorical Contest. Please help edit and revise it. The topic is Cybercommunication: Progress or Problem? and it has to be 4 to 5 minutes long.

Surprisingly often we hear stories about poor young girls killed by child molesters they met online thinking they were sweet funny girls who wanted to be their friends. Yes, this is a serious problem, but there are also the young children living in Missouri, with grandparents in Germany. With webcamming software, they can see each other every day. Without that, they would barely be able to see each other once a year. That's definite progress. So what is the answer to the question: is cybercommunication progress or a problem?

There is no definite answer to that question. There are parts that are definitely progress, and parts that are huge problems. There are scam sites dedicated to stealing your identity. There are other sites that don't keep your personal information as secure as it should be. It's also easier for children to be bullied online, because it's always easier to type something to someone than to say it to their face. Looking at this, everyone thinks, wow. Cybercommunication is definitely a big problem.

But think about this. The same tool hosts sites like Webkinz and Club Penguin. Sites that are safe and secure. They don't allow much contact, so it is difficult to give and receive personal information. There are also online dictionaries and encyclopedias. These can help with homework and projects. Free coupon sites, too. Parents love those. What I'm trying to prove here is that this is progress. So to write cybercommunication off as a big problem is unfair to the parts that shape our community and cultures for the better.

We have trouble seeing shades of grey sometimes. We just see black and white. We can't look at cybercommunication this way. There are good points of cybercommunication, and there are bad ones. And then there are also things that I like to fit in the category "in between". Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are just a few of the things that fit into this category. They can be good if used properly and carefully, but without the proper protection, they can be deadly. A Facebook account without privacy enabled is pretty dangerous, up there on the list next to being locked in a cage with hungry tigers. With protection, it's just a site where you can reconnect with that best friend you had in high school. It can do a lot of good used the right way.

Bill Gates once said, "The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow." It already has. We center our lives around it. Haven't you noticed that updating our Twitter has become routine? How our Facebook is practically an autobiography? It's cybercommunication at work. We use it every day to stay connected. It can be a good thing, but it can become a serious, deadly addiction.

Cybercommunication is not itself good or bad. A gun isn't responsible for killing; it's the person who pulls the trigger. Cybercommunication is used for good, and, unfortunately, for bad. There is no simple answer to the question: is cybercommunication progress or problem? There are problems, yes, but it is also progress. It has helped shape our community, our world; for better or for worse, it definitely has.

Speeches / If I Were the Leader of the Free World (Speech) - Suggestions? [3]

The assignment was to write a speech, 4 to 5 minutes long, about what we would do if we were the leaders of the free world. I chose cancer research as my subject, because it's something that I've seen affect many people around me. So here it goes:

There are many issues in modern-day society that are given much attention and obviously need to be addressed, but there is a specific one that impacts people's lives globally. Cancer. Those two, simple syllables send terrified patients spiraling toward a vat of untested, unproven information, half-baked treatments, and empty promises. Every day could be their last. It's true for every living being on this planet, but their condition makes it closer to them. Much more real. They can see it echoed in the eyes of their loved ones. They can see it in the doctor's eyes, the nurses. But worst of all is the strangers' pity. The end is coming, and it's so close they could touch it.

Treatments are, in most cases, the patients' only chance to get better. Chemotherapy is often a popular choice, because it is very well-known, even though it comes with certain risks. Firstly, along with destroying cancer cells, it destroys white blood cells, crippling your immune system. It harms along with its healing. Another popular treatment is radiotherapy. With this treatment, a cancer cell's DNA is damaged by the rays delivered by a machine either inside or outside of the body. When the DNA is damaged, the cell can no longer reproduce, so when it dies, it's done. Still another popular treatment is just plain surgery. The tumors and cancerous cells are simply cut out of the body, but you run the risk of cutting an essential organ. More than half of cancer patients receive this treatment.

All of those treatments are widely used and very popular among cancer patients, even though there are deadly risks that are well-known. Why are they so popular? Because, number one, they do work, to an extent. And, number two, what else can they do? What other hope do they have?

My grandfather died of cancer a few years ago, after battling it for several years. There are several people at my church who have or have had cancer. The saddest case is a friend of mine, at 26 years old, that has several sarcoma tumors in different places around her body. She is still battling the cancer using chemotherapy. She is completely bald and she cannot go out in public, because a germ that a healthy immune system could fight off with no complications could be fatal for her.

If I were the leader of the free world, I would financially back cancer research and finding safer cures for cancer. I would support more research into nutritional cures for cancer, because there are many myths and a few truths surrounding this supposed cure, and it would be amazing to be able to have a natural cure that does not harm the body. There have been books published on cures that were later found to be hoaxes. On the National Cancer Institute's website, they discuss nutritional therapy - but only in the context of undoing the harm that another cure is doing to the body. A real natural cure - not a hoax, not a therapy that undoes chemical damage - could be revolutionary. One with no negative effects to your immune system or natural, healthy cells. What kind of impact do you think that kind of cure could have on our and others' lives?

The program for research and production would be run off tax dollars and donations. Yes, taxes would have to be raised in order to get the funds that would be needed. But there have been tax raises for less important reasons, I believe. It's hard to say what deserves our tax money and what doesn't, and I am sure some people will disagree with me, but I think a good, solid cure for cancer would be worth every penny. And we've already spent billions on cancer research. Isn't it time to find a real cure?

The cure for cancer is something that has evaded us for years and years, because every cancer patient is different. It's like a plane crash. Different things can cause it, like lack of fuel or an engine failing, but whatever causes it, it always has the same result. A crashed plane, with people dead, people injured, and families changed forever. But a nutritional cure, while it may not work for everyone, could work across a larger majority of people. A larger majority of cancers. And cancer affects everyone. So the cure would affect everyone. It would make the phrase, "You have cancer", softer, meaning simply a lot of doctor's visits and a changed diet, instead of the thought that you may not live out the year. Cancer is a dangerous thing. But there's one thing that's true about a lot of people, particularly Americans. We're stubborn. And that means we won't give up.