Ron Paul speaks to Ballou High School students.

[freshjiva]

Not sure if this has been posted here, but here's a nice little treat: Ron Paul speaking to mostly black high school students at Ballou High School in DC.

Love Ron's tone in this impromptu speech. He presents his ideas of liberty so simple and easy to understand.

YouTube - Ron Paul on C SPAN s Students amp; Leaders at Ballou Senior (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy6PWNNrRT8)

[youngbuck]

He was on fire there toward the end... think I'll have to check out the next one.

[Vessol]

Pretty good, but you could tell he toned his rhetoric down until the end.

I wonder how many kids there actually heard of Ron Paul, or even cared.

I'll have to watch the full video later.

[MikeStanart]

Honestly. If Ron Paul talked to current voters like he did to those high schoolers; We'd probably get a lot more support! Haha! In his 2012 Run, Ron needs to tone things back a little (Like here); but with the same fiery rage he has always had.

[trey4sports]

the chick introducing him was hella nervous!

[Vessol]

the chick introducing him was hella nervous!

Yeah, I imagine it was pretty impromptu and that she only got a few facts(Congressmen, Doctor, Gynecologist), so she did her best.

[Xchange]

Holy Shit, thanks for posting....I have been searching for this

[trey4sports]

in order to watch the other parts you will have to go to youtube and type in "ron paul ballou" because the uploader of this video doesnt offer the other parts of the speech and contrary to what the video says you can't watch the full hour on earth2obama.org so just search for the corresponding vids on YT

[Baptist]

Honestly. If Ron Paul talked to current voters like he did to those high schoolers; We'd probably get a lot more support! Haha! In his 2012 Run, Ron needs to tone things back a little (Like here); but with the same fiery rage he has always had.


I agree, but unfortunately voters are just about as bored and braindead as these kids. Note to self: never send my kid to Ballou High School.
[edit] Okay, maybe I was a little harsh. The camera pans towards the end showed kids who seemed interested.

[JCF]

Thanks Trey... Was looking for it.

Pt. 2

YouTube - Ron Paul on C-SPAN's Students & Leaders at Ballou Senior High School, Washington D.C. - Part 2/6 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLvU1Thal2M)

6 parts :)

--

Some of the kids don't look very interested, but who knows, maybe one of those kids could be following Ron's path in 20 years. Every little speech counts.

[djdellisanti4]

The great thing about Ron Paul is that he can talk about different issues with different people, but the ideas and the rhetoric stay the same. Not true of very many other politicans who change the ideas based on the audience.

[cswake]

Just go straight to the source for higher quality, full video:

http://www.studentsandleaders.org/ron_paul.html

[low preference guy]

Ron Paul tried to sell Austrian Economics to the kids. Awesome.

[trey4sports]

difficult to watch. A couple problems.....

A. the kids were not engaged at all
B. Ron has a tendency to fumble words and be dull, combine that with a crowd that clearly isn't interested and it's a bad combo


Overall though, if even one kid takes something out of that conversation it's worth it. If Ron would've came to my high school I would have made sure my classmates at least faked some interest.

[Minuteman2012]

Ron Paul tried to sell Austrian Economics to the kids. Awesome.

What did he say? just paraphrase.

[BuddyRey]

I hope Dr. Paul is ready to use these very same liberty soundbytes in the '12 debates. This was an awesome speech!

[Golding]

Poor girl is put on the spot to introduce someone she doesn't know, on cable TV.

Impressive impromptu speech, though.

[Lord Xar]

Hmmm.

Those kids don't want to hear knowledge. They are spoon fed statist food and this idea of liberty is flying right over their heads. Obama is their god and they have no idea that slavery is alive in well in the 21st century --

[j6p]

Hmmm.

Those kids don't want to hear knowledge. They are spoon fed statist food and this idea of liberty is flying right over their heads. Obama is their god and they have no idea that slavery is alive in well in the 21st century --

Slavery? Just because a Democrat is in office?? You could say the same thing when bush was in power.

[Knightskye]

The great thing about Ron Paul is that he can talk about different issues with different people, but the ideas and the rhetoric stay the same. Not true of very many other politicans who change the ideas based on the audience.

Remember Mitt Romney's "bling bling" moment?

YouTube - Mitt Romney: Relating to the people (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXGMi7a53jA)

[Eleutheros]

difficult to watch. A couple problems.....

A. the kids were not engaged at all
B. Ron has a tendency to fumble words and be dull, combine that with a crowd that clearly isn't interested and it's a bad combo


Overall though, if even one kid takes something out of that conversation it's worth it. If Ron would've came to my high school I would have made sure my classmates at least faked some interest.

I agree wholeheartedly, it was very difficult to watch. It was a great speech on its own merits and he did adequately explain his philosophy as a Congressman and how it pertained to his goals while in office, but he did not know his audience in such a way to explain it so they would get it.

As a black 30-something male who has given speeches to black teenagers, the key element to them enjoying what would otherwise be a long, boring speech: ENGAGE THEM IN FEEDBACK AND PARTICIPATION!

What Dr. Paul should have done was to explain his philosophy through anecdotal scenarios that they could relate to--ex. Using the movie New Jack City when Nino Brown and his gang (known as the CMB) took over the Carter Apartments could be an excellent example in illustrating the US's occupation in Iraq and around the world, to say nothing of Pookie being a police informant infiltrating the CMB as an example of how our US intelligence works.

Also, occasionally survey the audience ("By a show of hands, how many of you would like to call someone, knowing someone could be listening and recording everything you said so they could use it against you later on?").

Another good audience participation method is by soliciting feedback, asking them how they felt or would feel if a certain situation occured to them personally.

A perfect example of how to illustrate socialism in a participatory way is to ask if someone has a dollar bill (preferably a $5 or $10) in their pocket and if they could take it out. Dr. Paul could ask if someone didn't have any money at all. He would then take the bill from the person having it and make like he's going to give it to the person that didn't have any money, to show that a person's wealth must be shared with those who doesn't have any wealth.

These are just a few examples. But my point is that black teenagers particularly like to be "edutained", educated through entertainment, the entertainment in this case being participating in the speech, it gives them something to wrap their minds around and makes the speech much easier to remember. They may not immediately grasp the concepts even with the anecdotes and scenarios, but once they put 2 and 2 together, it'll make a major "AH-HA" moment.

Long story short, Dr. Paul didn't know his audience and didn't give them anything they could immediately relate to, hence their being bored.

[djdellisanti4]

Long story short, Dr. Paul didn't know his audience and didn't give them anything they could immediately relate to, hence their being bored.

We'll its good practice atleast. I like to thing one or two kids learned something. I think I saw one taking notes (or doing homework, haha).


Remember Mitt Romney's "bling bling" moment?

YouTube - Mitt Romney: Relating to the people (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXGMi7a53jA)

What a jackass.

[JCF]

One of the kid's asked a question about his transition from being in the military to going back to being a civilian... I didn't hear Ron mention his military career in a way that the kids could conjure up such a question so I think the kids were required (beforehand) to study Dr. Paul...

:)

[Stary Hickory]

K when I was in high school I would never have even introduced him out of fear so I can't say nothing about her introduction.

[Andrew-Austin]

Slavery? Just because a Democrat is in office?? You could say the same thing when bush was in power.

No not just because a democrat is in power, and yes you could say the same thing about the Bush years and before that too. He is right though, slavery does exist today just in different forms. For starters, the income tax.

[Bruce]

I was going through the C-SPAN archives watching talks by Ron Paul I missed over the last two years and stumbled upon this talk. You can watch the entire talk over at C-SPAN's official website (http://c-span.org/Events/Political--Journalism-Leaders-Talk-to-DC-School-Students/13913-2/).

Can you say: awkward?

While Paul tweaked his talk a little to fit the audience I still think the material went way over their heads.

I agree with earlier posts by trey4sports (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?p=2846608#post2846608) and Eleutheros (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?257489-Ron-Paul-speaks-to-Ballou-High-School-students.&p=2847417&viewfull=1#post2847417).

UPDATE: Just finished watching the Q&A session afterwards and I want to point out that I'm not saying it was all bad, just could have been better suited towards the audience. His joke about cookiness and printing money even got a laugh :-) I personally quite enjoyed Paul talking during the Q&A about how he saw the future when he was young, his career in medicine and the Great Depression.