Introduction: Everyone Has Words to Offer
Ekkiosa Olumhense
“I was never more hated than when I tried to be honest. Or when, even as just now I’ve tried to articulate exactly what I felt to be the truth. No one was satisfied”
– Ralph Ellison
In 931 AD, the Great Library of Alexandria in Egypt was burned to the ground. On that day, hundreds of thousands of works by different scholars were lost to the world. The people of Alexandria and surrounding areas parted with pieces of their history forever. Different stories, different truths, different perspectives, and different ideas died in the fires of 931 AD.
Fortunately, today, the dawn of the internet has allowed us to keep many writings intact digitally. Every person’s story has an impact on the course of humanity. Turning thoughts into writing is one of the best ways to preserve one’s history. Those who have the tools to preserve their stories this way are the ones that get to write history. I am grateful that I got the chance to be able to express my ideas in Rhetoric in Everyday Life. Rhetoric is in everyday life. It should not only belong behind the paywalls of academia.
My classmates and I did not have to hold several degrees to contribute to Rhetoric in Everyday Life and Feeling Rhetoric. What we had was passion, which is pathos, and by establishing ethos and logos, we were able to discuss various concepts. Everyone in this book comes from different walks of life. We wrote about subjects pertinent to our personal, everyday interactions: sports, social justice, religion, etc. I enjoyed taking Rhetorical Theory and Criticism because we did not learn about rhetoric for the sake of academia, but about using rhetoric as a tool to relay our perspective.
Please enjoy Feeling Rhetoric and consider making your own words eternal someday.
