When I was a senior in high school, an unfortunate set of circumstances brought me to the regional finals of a Knights of Columbus public-speaking contest in Queens, New York. There, in a banquet hall, I was expected to deliver from memory an original speech on the topic “How Does Youth View Authority?”
The year was 1970. The unfortunate circumstances were these: (1) I was a member of my high-school debating team; (2) as the team’s only Catholic member, I was the only one eligible for the contest; (3) both the team captain and my English teacher strongly encouraged me to enter, and I lacked the will to resist them; and (4) no one else from the entire borough of Manhattan entered the preliminary competition, making me — to my horror — the winner by default, despite a complete lapse of memory halfway through my speech.
