At most speech events, the bland politeness of corporate mores shields us from the honest reactions of our audience. But the reactions are there, nonetheless. And they are profound, even when they're hushed.

I was reminded of this truth at a community meeting in my neighborhood in Chicago. It's an old Italian neighborhood熔ne that has seen lots of trouble over the years, with street gangs, drugs and poverty.

The veteran neighborhood stalwarts have been through so much, in fact, that they're not overly concerned by the gentrification that brings the likes of me into the neighborhood is the least of their troubles. As one old guy told me, "We used to worry about shootings. Now we're worried about people picking up after their dogs in the park. I think we're making progress."

And still, there's that dog issue. That was what the meeting was about. That was the issue we were meeting over.

At this meeting, the attractive, confident, well-spoken thirty-something head of the Chicago Park District's intergovernmental affairs department葉he woman who works with the city and the county and the state on behalf of the parks妖iscredited herself in a way that was both spectacular and painfully common.

In her remarks, she told the group預bout 20 people evenly split between new residents and old葉hat what we really needed was to form a local Advisory Council, so that she would know who to deal with regarding these issues.

Without an Advisory Council, she said, "I have no way of knowing who to go to."

At this, the wizened residents erupted.

"I've been gardening in that park for 20 years!"

"I've been on the Eckert Park board for 25 years!"

"I've been the precinct captain in this ward through four aldermen!"

How dare this pretty young thing tell these people she doesn't know who to deal with regarding the park we have lived beside, maintained and protected for decades!

The woman shrugged and said she deals with more than 300 similar communities in Chicago, and implied that she couldn't be expected to know the leaders in each one without a formal Advisory Council.

It is probable that this woman has similarly enraged the elder residents of every one of those 300 communities with her shrugging stupidity; and it's probable that she walks away from each of these meetings with a smirking opinion that: All people think about is themselves.

Unlike CEOs, who are often not told when they trounce on the audience's ego, this Park District official hears it straight. The trouble is, she doesn't listen妖oesn't really understand what it is like to feel long-term ownership of a humble neighborhood and then be told by some whippersnapper Parks official she doesn't know who in the hell you are.

The lesson for speechwriters and speakers: When speaking to audiences who have had a stake in the issue for longer than you have, it is impossible to be too deferential預nd perhaps also impossible to be deferential enough.