"The Hundred to Stay Funded"

For a long time marches, walks, and bus rides have been a powerful way to deliver a rhetorical message. 

Sometimes the message is one of opposition to something the government is doing.  Martin Luther King Junior and the other leaders of the civil rights movement used this method in the March on Washington, when King gave his “I Have a Dream Speech.”  SNCC leaders (the student run civil rights group) organized a bus ride to oppose segregated seating.

Other times, the message is a call to action, such as the Thon 5K to support pediatric cancer, or the Out of the Darkness Walk for suicide prevention and awareness. 

Why do so many people use these methods?  Because they are rhetorically powerful.   Instead of simply using words to advocate desegregation or encourage people to donate to cancer research individuals or groups march to physically demonstrate their commitment to their purpose.  They aren’t just speaking meaningful words to try to call others to action they are acting- and everybody knows actions speak louder than words.  These events expertly utilize pathos.  People sacrificing themselves- their time, their energy, and in the case of movements such as civil rights their safety- that gets a response out of viewers that no words, however passionate, can.

And beginning tonight, the cross country team from Lock Haven will run 100 miles to the rally in Harrisburg being held to oppose the PA state budget cuts to higher education.  Now, the whole team isn’t running all 100 miles- they will be taking shifts.  But none-the-less, when the team runs into the city just as the rally is getting under way, people will notice.  Because these busy college students took it upon themselves not just to attend the rally, but to run to it.