Eulogies at the funeral for President Jimmy Carter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The funeral service for Jimmy Carter had lots of long and inspired eulogies. At PBS NewsHour there is a four hour and eighteen-minute video titled Funeral service for Jimmy Carter held at Washington National Cathedral. There is a second four-minute YouTube video titled WATCH: All 5 living former presidents gather to pay tribute to Carter | Carter Funeral. And there is a third seven-minute video titled WATCH: Key moments from Jimmy Carter’s official state funeral.

 

There is an eleven-minute video titled WATCH: Jimmy Carter established ‘model post-presidency,’ Biden says in eulogy. And there is another nine-minute video titled WATCH: Harris pays tribute to Jimmy Carter at U. S. Capitol memorial service.

 

An eight-minute homily is titled WATCH: Rev. Andrew Young remembers Jimmy Carter’s legacy pursuing equality. Note that Rev. Young did not mention that he was appointed as Ambassador to the United Nations in 1977. He kept the focus on Jimmy Carter.  

 

There is a fifteen-minute video titled WATCH: Gerald Ford’s son reads former president’s eulogy to Jimmy Carter | Carter Funeral. And there also is a nine-minute video by vice-president Walter Mondale, read by his son Steve titled WATCH: ‘Far-sighted’ Carter put presidency on the line for the future, Mondale wrote in eulogy.

 

A portrait of Carter as governor of Georgia was adapted from Wikimedia Commons.

Zero dark thirty and 25 (or 6) to 4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some phrases are rather cryptic. For example, Zero Dark Thirty is 2012 political action thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow about the manhunt for Osama bin Laden. A Wikipedia page explains that title is:

 

“American military slang for an unspecified time between midnight and sunrise.”

 

There is another Wikipedia page about the Chicago song, 25 or 6 to 4 that was released as a single in June 1970. It was written by Robert Lamm, who said his cryptic title was telling about trying to write a song in the wee hours of the morning. There is an article by Jay McDowell at American Songwriter on February 1, 2024 titled The Mundane Meaning Behind “25 or 6 to 4” by Chicago. It is not about LSD (sometimes known as LSD-25), or heroin, or cocaine.

 

This post was inspired by my listening to the album, The Best of Chicago: 40th Anniversary Edition.

 

A claim that 77% of the world fears public speaking is just nonsense

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At AhaSlides on January 3, 2025 there is an article by Lawrence Haywood titled Fear of Public Speaking: 15 Tips to Beat Glossophobia in 2025. It begins:

 

“What is glossophobia?

 

Glossophobia – the fear of public speaking – is a kind of social anxiety disorder that prevents an individual from speaking in front of a group of people.

 

We can say with some conviction that you are a sufferer of the fear of public speaking.

 

How? Well, yes, because you’re reading this article, but also because all of the stats point to it. According to one European study, an estimated 77% of people could suffer from a fear of public speaking.

 

That’s over 3/4 of the world who are just like you when they’re in front of a crowd. They shake, blush and quiver on stage. Their hearts go a mile a minute and their voice cracks under the pressure of being the sole person tasked to get a message across.”  

 

Using a percentage from one European country to represent the world obviously is complete nonsense. And that article did very superficial research. It just linked to the abstract of an article by Alexandre Heeren et al. rather than the full text you can find or at PubMed Central. The first sentence of that article instead says that rather than their research in Belgium or Switzerland:

 

“About 77% of the general population fears public speaking. [Reference 1, to a 1999 article by T. Furmark et al. about Sweden]

 

Back on September 15, 2023 I blogged about how That zombie statistic that 77% of people fear public speaking in back – again. That post referred to an earlier, very similar article from AhaSlides. And it also referred to my blog post on October 12, 2020 titled Do 77% of Americans fear public speaking? No! That percentage described stage fright in Swedes who also had social anxiety disorder. Only 24% of the Swedish general population feared public speaking – about three times less.

 

That 24% is very similar to the percentages found for the U.S. in the ten Chapman Surveys of American Fears. I have presented those results (for the Very Afraid + Afraid fear levels) most recently in a December 5, 2024 blog post titled Psychotherapist Jonathan Berent fumbles some statistics about social anxiety and fear of public speaking. They were 25.3% for 2014, 27.5% for 2015, 25.5% for 2016, 23.3% for 2017, 26.2% for 2018, 31.2% for 2019, 29.0% for 2020/21, 24.0% for 2022, 28.7% for 2023, and 29.1% for 2024.

 

How to Write and Deliver a Eulogy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an excellent article by Chandler Dean at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency on May 22, 2024 titled How to Craft a Eulogy When All You Want to Do is Crawl in a Hole. He advises:

 

Ask yourself the big questions.

If you’re feeling stuck, don’t overthink it; start writing exactly what you’re feeling.

Once you have your thoughts on paper, you may now overthink it until it’s under five minutes.

You will never capture this person in their entirety. So do not try.

Don’t be afraid to be funny.

It may be hard to find the words. But avoid saying, ‘There are no words.’

 

There also is a post by Jennifer Calonia at the Grammarly blog on March 24, 2022 titled How to Write a Eulogy. She instead also discusses topics to avoid:

 

The reason for their death

Trivializing their death

Family grudges and disagreements

Unhealthy habits

Criminal history and other legal issues

Triggering memories

Criticisms about their life choices

Unresolved arguments

Their faults

 

Jens E. Kjeldsen is Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Bergen in Norway. He wrote another excellent article with four examples titled “My Father Is No Longer Here – the Rhetoric of Eulogy” which you can read on pages 3 to 6 in These Vital Speeches: The Best of the 2023 Cicero Speechwriting Awards.

 

And there is a great brief article by B. J. Miller and Shoshana Berger at IDEAS.TED.COM on July 23, 2019 titled How to give a eulogy that truly celebrates the person you’re honoring.

Toastmaster magazine has four brief articles about eulogies. One by Theodore Lustig in the December 2009 issue on page 12 is titled The Most Difficult Speech: The Eulogy. A second by Tammy A. Miller in the November 2020 issue on pages 20 and 21 is titled Delivering a Heartfelt Farewell. A third by Bill Brown In the December 2023 issue on page 9 is titled Saying Goodbye Isn’t Easy. A fourth by Caren S. Neile in the June 2024 issue on page 8 is titled An Unwanted Honor.

 

The image of Frank Bolden is from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

If you have an opportunity to join an established corporate Toastmasters club, then you should do so

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are two main types of Toastmasters clubs: community and corporate. Community clubs have open membership; corporate club membership is restricted to employees. Which type should you join if you are fortunate enough to have a choice? What are the advantages and disadvantages of those types?

 

A press release at PR Newswire on April 26, 2022 titled Fortune 500 Companies Seek Out Toastmasters for Developing Employees’ Soft Skills explains:

 

“While the workplace landscape has changed drastically in recent years, one thing remains constant: the value employers place on their employees having and continuing to develop effective soft skills. More than half of the 2021 Fortune 500 companies offer in-house Toastmasters clubs to help build and improve their employees' communication, leadership, and public speaking skills.

 

Apple, Amazon, Ford Motors, Exxon Mobil, General Electric, JPMorgan Chase, Northrop Grumman, Pfizer, State Farm Insurance, and UPS are among industry leaders using the Toastmasters International program to develop and enhance these valuable soft skills as well as the confidence of their employees.”

 

An article at Toastmaster magazine on February 2023 at pages 14 to 17 by Jennifer L. Blanck titled The Corporate Club Value Proposition: Stronger Than Ever discusses them. A second article by Caren S. Neile on September 2021 (pages 20 and 21) titled Toastmasters Works is subtitled How corporate clubs help both companies and employees. A third article by K. T. Lynn On September 2018 at pages 28 and 29 is titled Common Challenges of Corporate Clubs. A fourth article by Adriana Alxala at LinkedIn Pulse on March 31, 2017 is titled 3 Benefits of Having a Toastmaster Club in Your Office says they are:

 

1] The only meeting where being perfect isn’t required

2] Everybody has an opportunity to speak and lead in a safe place

3] Become friends of your coworkers

 

And a 1:44 YouTube video from Toastmasters International titled Dananjaya Hettiarachchi: Three Benefits of corporate Clubs says they are:

  

1} Helping management understand the art of saying something

2} It has identified specific competencies that are important for specific roles in       organizations

3} It gives your employees a safe space to talk about the ideas that they have in their minds

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A corporate club can be in a stable and convenient meeting place, where excellent visual aids already are set up for easy use. Contrast that with Pioneer Club, a community club in Boise I belong to, which has met successively at Idaho Pizza, Boise Public Library, Black Bear Diner, and Café Ole.

 

And in a corporate club you already know some fellow members. Perhaps one can become your mentor.

 

One disadvantage of a corporate club is a lack of diversity. For example, the corporate style for PowerPoint may not be up to date and heavy with bullet point lists. On February 19, 2014 I blogged about how Assertion-Evidence PowerPoint slides are a visual alternative to bullet point lists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another potential disadvantage of a corporate club arises if there is not a large enough employee base to keep on providing new members. At least a couple hundred employees are needed to keep the typical 20 members. A corporate club can fade away only a few years after being formed. Here in Boise there are two very respected corporate clubs at very large employers: Russet Ramblers at Simplot - formed in 2007, and the Dynamic Club at Micron headquarters – formed in 2002. There once was a corporate club at Scentscy in Meridian, but it closed. In contrast, some community clubs survive for a very long time. Boise Club started in 1936 and Pioneer Club started in 1957.

 

Item 121 from Toastmasters International (August 2023) is a 19-page pdf document titled How to Build a Toastmasters Club. An article by Nibu Thomas at LinkedIn Pulse on November 15, 2021 is titled Moments of Truth – Corporate Toastmasters discusses start-up problems.

 

The cartoon was adapted from one at Openclipart.

 

Savage Chickens cartoon about having the right amount of worry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a Savage Chickens cartoon on January 6, 2025 by Doug Savage titled The Right Amount. Too little or too much worry can be bad. An appropriate level of worry will help him not freak out constantly. 

 

 At Wikipedia there is an article about the Yerkes-Dobson Law. And there is another article by Charlotte Nickerson at SimplyPsychology on November 9, 2023 titled The Yerkes-Dobson Law of Arousal and Performance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Back on July 1, 2016 I blogged about how A little fear of public speaking is good, but a lot is awful, as shown above.

 

Another misleading article about government spending from the Idaho Freedom Foundation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the Idaho Freedom Foundation on December 31, 2024 there is a misleading article by Fred Birnbaum titled Want limited government? Control the spending! He preaches that:

 

“Legislative leadership needs to set both state and federal (all funds) spending limits so that overall spending does not grow at all in the coming year, meaning a 0% increase in all funds appropriations from Fiscal Year 2025 to Fiscal Year 2026. Is this reasonable? Absolutely!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fred has a pair of tables showing how state spending grew from fiscal 2020 to 2025, and how federal spending changed from fiscal 2019 to 2024. He shows a totally unnecessary seven or eight significant figures. Graphs would have been more effective for showing changes. Fred claims that there have been large increases:

 

“What we see is that state spending, excluding federal dollars, has increased 53% over five years at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.8%. Now let’s look at the federal dollars (all federal spending, not just federal dollars for Idaho) for the last five years – note that a one-year offset is used because of differences in fiscal years and the fact that COVID spending first washed through the federal government before hitting the states.

What we see is that federal spending is up 56%, and the CAGR is 9.3%. This means that Idaho is growing spending virtually as fast as the profligate federal government. Who would have thought this?”

 

Fred summarized those tables with a five-year % increase and a CAGR. But what was going on from year to year?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The graph shown above displays the state spending data. Year to year % increases in spending were 4.75%, 4.64%, 18.6%, 11.5%, and 5.35%. The first two were around 5%, but the next two were much larger. The five-year % increase was 53% and the CAGR was 8.8%.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another graph shows the federal data he tabulated in red. Year to year % changes in spending were 47.4%, 4.1%, -8.0%, -2.2% and 13.1%. The five-year % increase was 56% and the CAGR was 9.3%. With a huge range of -2.2% to 47.4% the CAGR tells us very little. But Fred did not link to a source for that federal data, so I went looking for one. I found a United States Treasury Department FiscalData web page titled How much has the U.S. government spent this year? which has a graphic titled Government Spending and the U. S. Economy (GDP, FY 2015 -2024 Inflation Adjusted – 2024 dollars. I also have plotted that federal data in blue. It does NOT agree with what Fred tabulated. The five-year % increase only was 23.6% and the CAGR just was 3.9%. But the maximum change, from 2019 to 2020, was by 45.4%. Using the five-year % increase gives a much more modest change of 23.6%, where Idaho spending increased over twice as much as federal spending did!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That Treasury web page has more spending data, back to 2015. All those results are shown above in yet another graph. We can look at 2020, 2021, and 2022 as being a COVID-19 hump. Then we can draw a line with a 5% growth rate through 2018, 2019, 2023 and 2024. A 5% growth rate would compensate for inflation and be much more reasonable than Fred’s zero.   

 

The cartoon with money bags was adapted from this one at Openclipart.