What's a "soapbox declamation"?

[proud2BlibKansan]

I wrote this piece yesterday and was encouraged to send it in to NPR's 'This I Believe'.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/proud2Blib/40

So I registered on the website and saw this message in the instructions: "Avoid sermons and editorials—no soapbox declamations, please!"

http://thisibelieve.org/form.html

I think this might be a soapbox declamation. Is it? Any English teachers out there?

Thanks. :)

[cynatnite]

1. Isn't that something similar to a sermon? n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. I don't know

Could be I guess.

[Canuckistanian]

3. From the Free Dictionary

dec·la·ma·tion (dkl-mshn)
n.
1. A recitation delivered as an exercise in rhetoric or elocution.
2.
a. Vehement oratory.
b. A speech marked by strong feeling; a tirade.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Thanks

[nealmhughes]

4. From Hyde Park ranters in London supposed having used soap boxes as a platform

when they launched their jeremiads; in other words to go out of one's way to publicize a peculiar (Latin sense of the term) cause that others do not necessarily wish to hear/read.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Hmmm NPR has moved to the right, has it not?

That would make my piece likely to be something they don't want to hear.

[LSK]

7. you have nothing to lose by trying

[Lilith Velkor]

8. It's a good name for a punk band.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Yes it is!

:)

[pinto]

10. Standing on a soapbox in a public park to make a speech.

Sometimes a derogatory connotation, I guess, as many are particularly personal rants.

Monologues, usually.

When I lived in Boston there was one corner at the Commons (Washington Street?) subway exit that was a traditional spot for soapbox speeches.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Not necessarily derogatory - used as "old-fashioned and honest" in UK 1992 campaign

The "Soapbox"

During the campaign the Prime Minister attended a series of "Meet John Major" talkabouts, at which he fielded questions from an invited audience of 200-300 people. Seated on a barstool in the middle of the hall, following a brief introduction from his "warm-up man" Jeffrey Archer, he would respond to questions from the audience.

Mr Major was seen to be his party's strongest asset in the campaign and "The Meet John Majors" were intended to exploit his ability to communicate directly with real people. However, during the campaign Mr Major came to feel that this imported American technique was too orchestrated and that he was not getting close enough to the "real voters".

So, in Luton on 28 March he produced the now famous soapbox - an innovation which according to Prime Ministerial adviser Sarah Hogg came to him on the spur of the moment. Amidst much barracking, and to the consternation of the detectives minding him, Mr Major verbally battled with the crowds on a hand-held megaphone.

Although the initiative did little to get the Prime Minister's policies across to a wider audience it did reinforce the voters' image of the Prime Minister as "honest John". It also had the added bonus of personally invigorating John Major and increasing the interest-level of the media in what they were beginning to write off as a lacklustre campaign.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/election97/background/pastelec/92keyiss.htm