The This I Believe speech I chose was by Vint Cerf. He is
man from McLean, Virginia and he is credited as the “Father of the Internet”,
but that is not why I was interested in his speech. The main focus of his speech
is that everyone, no matter who they are, deserves your utmost respect. Cerf begins
his speech with a personal story about his acquaintance with an unusual limo driver
he once had. Cerf was feeling sorry for his driver because he thought he was
just an older man that could not retire and had to keep working, but he turned
to be the direct opposite. He was a retired CFO of some corporation and he
became a chauffeur so that he could talk to different people and stay in touch
with the modern world. He even gave Cerf
some advice that prompted him to write this speech.
He used this advice to branch out and connect with new
people just by simply talking to them. He found that if he was simply patient
and gave people the time of day, they would be glad to allow him to see into
their lives and share their experiences. When he speaks on disagreeing with
some of the people he meets, his point really resonated with me. Cerf states
that “respect doesn’t mean we have to agree, but we should disagree in a civil
fashion” and that just blew me away. When
reading that statement, I can just imagine all the times I disagreed with someone
and was nowhere near polite; then remembering a later argument that went one
thousand times better simply because I had learned that lesson of respect. Employing
that idea in every argument made life easier because the argument would never
get out of hand and tempers would never flare out of control. I, like Cerf,
believe that it is impossible that you can show someone earnest respect and not
receive the same back.
Cerf talks about how some people think that the internet dehumanizes
us, but truly how it’s just another way to communicate. If you are arguing with
someone through the web, just get on the phone so no one gets the wrong meaning
of what was said.
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