Word: speech
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...House of Lords and resplendent in a glittering crown containing a sapphire that belonged to Edward the Confessor and a ruby that Henry V wore at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, Queen Elizabeth II opened Parliament. The Lord Chancellor knelt and presented the Queen with her speech, a stilted discourse prepared by the Prime Minister, that outlined the government's legislative objectives for the coming year...
...same gulf between rhetoric and reality exists in China. The country's current charter, its fifth since 1949, grants "freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration." Peking nonetheless responded to widespread student protests last winter by detaining the leaders, firing university officials and halting demonstrations. Authorities then shut down half a dozen liberal periodicals and banned scores of books, magazines and films throughout the country...
...greater pains to stay in power than to preserve democratic rights. Troublesome constitutions are usually ignored or tailored to suit. "If anyone speaks to you about a multiparty political system, catch him and hit him hard," declared Gabon President Albert-Bernard (Omar) Bongo in a widely quoted 1983 speech. At least 28 of the continent's 53 states have only one political party, and 27 African nations are under military rule. Countries ranging from Guinea in West Africa to Somalia in the east have gone so far as to declare dissent a treasonable crime that can be punished by death...
Lloyd Carew-Reid, the street musician from Perth, is a squirrelly little guy, blond beard, soft speech, 37 years old, who lives on the rim of the Chelsea area of Manhattan in a dog-eared hotel where drug deals and muggings go down every month or so, where one mad woman thinks she's a rooster. His home environment to some would seem a nightmare; his work environment to most would seem hell. After a day of breathing the iron filings in the New York City subways, one would think he could blow his nose and sink a Hudson River...
...living thing grows and changes. In a speech in July 1985, Attorney General Edwin Meese argued that the Supreme Court had allowed the Constitution to become far too organic. He criticized the court for making the law rather than merely applying the law as it had been set down by the founders. The Justices, said Meese, should stick closely to the views of the men who wrote the Constitution; they should practice today a "jurisprudence of original intention...