Four-Way Test Speech 2009

This was my speech for the Rotary Club's annual speech contest...I got third (last year I got first...)



What if every person on the earth decided to make a difference? What if everyone chipped-in and did their share? As little as one person can make a difference, if a single person can cause radical change, imagine if we had two, five, or a thousand people. Imagine the constructive force of over 6 billion people, if the entire population of earth decided to help out for one day, that would add up to over eighteen million years of constant compassion. Even the Rotary club’s four-way test “…recognizes that the welfare of each individual is linked with the welfare of us all.”
We may not be able to persuade the rest of the globe to help out, but all of us in this room can help. If we all helped someone else, for at least a day, we would have enough people to last out for about a week or so. Some may think that a week isn’t ample time to change someone’s life but on Extreme makeover, they change lives in a week, and they do it every week. In contrast, it only takes moments to make someone grin. It happens instantaneously, it provides instant gratification because you know you have made an impact on that person’s life. The impact may not be life altering, but by showing that you care, you can see one of the real Seven Wonders of the World-the smile.
When the term charity is used it does not refer to donating your unwanted pieces of clothing to an organization in need. Getting rid of your burden, although appreciated, is not the noblest way to help others out. Donating money is another great way to help out, but a simple act of humanitarianism will serve just as much justice. And by this display of kindness, an epidemic will spread the globe. Instead of pus filled boils, this epidemic will cause vast amounts of humanity. If you help out two people, and they help out two people and the chain continues, soon enough everyone in the world will show compassion towards each other.
To avoid hypocrisy, I’ll tell you about my favorite community service project. My grandparents live in a very small town in southern Ohio called Hammondsville, and every year, for the past five years, I have been going there and helping out with a Bible School. When the project first started, they did not have enough people to start the Bible school on its own, because there were not enough people involved. I quickly volunteered, and brought my friends along to help out, all six of us spent much of our days at Bible school helping the underprivileged kids learn about their faith. Then, after the week is over we have a picnic, which of course, all the kids love. However, my favorite part is not the picnic, nor snack time, my favorite part is at the end of the day, when all the kids go home. Not because I’m happy to get rid of them, but because they all leave with at least one thing they didn’t have when they arrived that morning, and usually it includes a smile. Now lets apply the principle of charity and humanity to the four way test.
Is it true? At first, it may seem like a single person cannot possibly make a difference on a global scale, but we have people like Ghandi, the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa to serve as examples. Is it fair? What about the people who cant help out? As of right now there are some people who can help out, so they would help out some of the people who cannot, therefore making them able to help out other people, continuing the cycle. What is not fair is that there is a large number of people who have the ability to help, yet they sit back and do nothing. If we all put just a little into it, we get much more back in return. Is this beneficial to all involved? What is there to lose? We’d all be helping out other people, giving them a chance; a chance for kids to have a Christmas, Hanukah or Kwanzaa, a chance for them to have a meal on their table every night, a chance for them to have a house to come home to and a bed to sleep in. An article in the Plain Dealer discusses several studies that show that the people who help others actually have better mental health. This idea dates all the way back to the 1930s when nuns who expressed positive emotion outlived others by 10 years. “With generous behavior,” says Stephen Post, professor of bioethics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, “people have fuller lives, deeper self-esteem and a more creative engagement of their capacities. It’s paradoxical but true: It’s good to be good. The only people who it would not benefit greatly would be those who choose not to participate, because they would only see second-hand humanitarianism. Will it build goodwill and friendship? I cannot think of a better way to make a friend than to help them out. Changing someone’s life creates bonds that cannot be broken. Bonds will start to form between people, then between groups, then before you know it, our entire country is up in arms and united, the way we should be. Eventually it will spread across the globe and the entire planet will be working together, bonded by the ties of compassion.
Together we can make a difference, but teamwork only applies when more than one person is willing to help, and some people are just reluctant. Despite the lack of support, you may still be eager to help. One person is still able to make a difference, it may not be as large as the difference made by six billion people, but no difference is too small. It was Aesop who once said "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."