Ronald Reagan’s “Space Shuttle Challenger” Since the presidency of George Washington, the people of The United States have turned to the commander in chief in times of distress to receive assurance and hope. Kurt Ritter comments on President Reagan’s address to the nation given on January 28, 1986 saying, “Perhaps no president could have fulfilled the country’s need to mourn and, then, to begin to heal as skillfully as Ronald Reagan (Ritter, 3).” On that morning the space shuttle “Challenger” violently exploded while the nation watched live televised coverage of the shuttle’s launch. President Reagan was scheduled to give his State of the Union Address on that date, but instead he reached out the country in this time of mourning. He spoke from his oval office to heartbroken teachers, children, NASA Space Engineers, and the entire country. President Reagan’s reaction to the tragedy of the challenger guided the United States out of despair and into a new light of hope behind seven fallen heroes. In this essay I will show that Reagan gave our country a new light of hope through his emphasis on Pathos but also incorporating Ethos and Logos in this memorable presentation. There is no doubt that the when the President of the United States speaks everyone listens to what he has to say. This credibility makes the Ethos of Reagan’s Speech almost unsurpassable. As mentioned Reagan was scheduled to give a State of the Union Address to our country on the evening of January 28, 1986. Instead, he postponed it, because “the story of the day was tragedy. Here he wanted to give an upbeat speech about America moving ahead. It just didn’t fit. It seemed in congruous (Weinraub).” He showed the country that his priority is the emotions of his people by, for the first time in history, postponing on the State of the Union speech in order to discuss the current event. This strengthened the creditability of his argument immensely. He likened the astronauts to pioneers and stated in his speech that “They had a special grace, that special spirit that says, ‘Give me a challenge and I’ll meet it with joy.” With this he appeals to the spiritual side of his audience using the word grace to describe the fallen. Again, “The president concluded by attaching the nation’s sorrow to God’s grace (Ritter, 4).” He said “As they prepared for there journey and waved ... ... middle of paper ... ...ng that “nothing ends here”. Reagan’s speech on the night of January 28, 1986 dramatically “took the first step toward uniting the country in its grief (Ritter, 4)”. Ronald Reagan reached out to the schoolchildren of America and all other citizens of the United States to counsel them in time of tragedy. He gave hope to the nation through emotional and spiritual reference. He was effective in conveying his message but the way his thoughts were organized was in part ineffective. His speech is very unorganized, and he could have ordered his thoughts better. More importantly than disorganization though, Ronald Reagan reached out to a nation that needed him as there president. He gave the people of the United States hope and Reassurance, a task that the President has been expected to do since the beginning of our country. Citations Apple, R.W. Jr. “President As Healer.” The New York Times 28 Jan. 1986:A2. Ritter, Kurt, and David Heary. Ronald Reagan: The Great Communicator. Connecticut: Greenwood, 1992. Sloan, Thomas O. ed. Technical Communication New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Weinraub, Bernard “Reagan Postpones State of Union Speech.” The New York Times 29 Jan. 1986:A9.
... years in office. Even when President Reagan, didn’t make wise decisions, he took full blame for them, which made the American population trust him and gain more popularity. With his many major accomplishments in helping the American people, and putting them first, really helped in his favor. Reagan has built up the US military to what it is now because he believed that we needed to “restore America's ability to defend itself and fulfill its responsibilities as a trustee of freedom and peace in the world” (Wild Thing, January 21, 2006). President Reagan is man that has a heart and soul with America, and will fight for our freedoms and rights for as long as his lives. In 1994, President Reagan got Alzheimer’s disease, left public life, and died on June 5, 2004 from pneumonia. Reagan is still looked up to and is considered one of the greatest Presidents of all time.
Strober, Deborah Hart, and Gerald S. Strober. Reagan the Man and His Presidency. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. Print.
...speech to the world where he was quoted as saying, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” The speech was given at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin (“Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall: President Ronald Reagan”). This speech signified the beginning of the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. President Reagan’s foreign policy tactics are another reason why he was a great president.
Every line that Reagan utters has purpose and is not put to waste, every line is used to convince the Germans to gravitate towards his cause of being more like the United States by embracing Western Democracy. Reagan is hopeful during his speech and wishes to see Berlin be triumphant and succeed once again as a nation, this is seen throughout the central theme of his speech as he urges the Germans take his advice and tear down the wall and let go of communist principles. Overall, Reagan’s argumentation during the, “Address from the Brandenburg Gate” was incredibly effective. His audience rallied behind his words as he spoke them, and that is exactly what he wanted. Also, Reagan’s speech was given right in the middle of a key time during efforts to end the Cold War. Reagan had established a relationship with Mikhail Gorbachev the current leader, of the Soviet Union and had recognized the change in the direction of the Soviet leadership under his rule. This relationship lead to Reagan making arms agreements with the Soviets with the intent to achieve a world without any nuclear weapons at all. Eventually Reagan and Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty at the White House, which eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons. Reagan also believed that if he could persuade the Soviets to allow for more democracy and free speech, this would lead to reform and the
Reagan’s speech had rhetorical devices, such as, allusion, rhetorical question, and plain folks appeal. He made an indirect reference to an event in the 1950’s, which politician Khrushchev predicted “we will bury you” (par. 8). This allusion tells the audience that Reagan has a good knowledge of the topic he is speaking about. Reagan gives a rhetorical question, when he was talking about how changes have occurred in the Soviet Union and he asked if “these are the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state?” (par. 11). The use of a rhetorical question gets the audience involved and it gives emphasis to his claim. Finally, Reagan uses plain folks appeal just like Kennedy by using the German language by saying “Es gibt nur ein Berlin” (par. 4). This use of the German language is helpful to his speech, because by him saying “there is only one Berlin” in the audience's language, it shows that he is really caring of the whole
In the beginning of his speech, he uses a unique style to communicate his speech. He immediately starts off with a clear and precise tone, however his assortment of words indicates a consciousness of concern. Reagan’s tone in this speech is serious and influential. He wants the audience to understand his viewpoints and how he fee...
Ronald Reagan was one of the most liked Presidents. When being elected for his second term, he won by a landslide—winning all the states minus Minnesota and Washington D.C. Reagan addresses the people of the United States of America. He wants the American people to reflect on his presidency, and as all presidents do in their farewell addresses, he wants to say goodbye to the nation that he's led for the past eight years. Ronald Reagan uses repetition, parallel structure, and allusion to reflect on his presidency and to say farewell to the American people.
Ronald Reagan was a very popular person before, during, and after his time of presidency. He went from a mere radio announcer, to the head of the United States of America. Ronald had defeated most of the world’s problems with Communism, improved the economy, and handled terrorist threats like a pro. Ronald quickly took America’s heart with his honorable deeds and doings. He was very famous by the time he became deceased. (Ronald Reagan Facts.)
Two similar events, two similar speeches, and two similar men. Yet one has a spot on the top 100 speeches list and one has nearly faded away from all remembrance. Speeches are given to make and impact or a difference, and in this instance both brought relief to a nation in grief, and both are rhetorically sound. Ronald W. Reagan is such a president that left the nation with outstanding rhetorically great speeches. One of these is his world-renowned speech given to the nation after the explosion of the Challenger shuttle January 26, 1986. George W. Bush, a president just as distinguished as Reagan delivers a speech on February 1, 2003 on a parallel account. Another shuttle, the Columbia, exploded with similar characteristics, and in much the same way, Bush’s speech resembled Reagan’s address to the nation. There were many parallels with the two speeches, structure and content wise; however Reagan conveys better use of rhetorical strategies and provides the audience with greater hope and condolence. Both men use the power of ethos and pathos, but one man, Ronald Reagan, uses ethos and rhetoric in a way that Bush didn’t, he created a speech that embodies what America is about, hope.
We are going to first look at President Reagan's vision, the plan that he used to fulfill his vision, and the leadership involved in moving his vision forward. Next, we are going to look at his ethics and what influenced them. Additionally, we will look at the impacts that his vision and his ethics had on bringing down the Berlin wall. Finally, we are going to look at how he impacted the world that we live in today, his impacts upon me, and my leadership skills. We know that President Reagan was a visionary leader, and ethical, we will now examine his vision.
In his “Challenger Explosion” speech, Pres. Ronald Reagan comforts the nation in the aftermath of NASA’s Challenger Space Shuttle exploded shortly after takeoff killing all seven astronauts. In this speech, he used rhetorical devices, such as alliteration, allusion, anaphora, and euphemism to relay his feelings of sadness and grief.
1. Anderson, Annelise, Martin Anderson, and Ronald Reagan. RONALD REAGAN'S PATH TO VICTORY: SELECTED WRITINGS BOOK. New Yrk: Free Pr, 2004
Ronald Reagan believed that the United States must never lose their principles or grounding which come from being part of the faithful. He viewed evangelicals who participated in the government as being saviors of the Unite States. He saw them as preventing the moral decline of the United States. He saw the overall battle as being between good and evil, with the United States being a beacon of all that is good, so long as it remained true to its’ christian principles. Reagan urged his audience to not accept the idea that both sides of a struggle are equally at fault. That the battle of good versus evil is ever ongoing and that the arms race was not just a simple misunderstanding, but rather a battle against evil. Reagan believed that because their motives were spiritual and not materiel, that they would triumph because there are no limitations on the freedom of man.
On a cold winter’s morning on the 28th day of January in the year 1986, America was profoundly shaken and sent to its knees as the space shuttle Challenger gruesomely exploded just seconds after launching. The seven members of its crew, including one civilian teacher, were all lost. This was a game changer, we had never lost a single astronaut in flight. The United States by this time had unfortunately grown accustomed to successful space missions, and this reality check was all too sudden, too brutal for a complacent and oblivious nation (“Space”). The outbreak of sympathy that poured from its citizens had not been seen since President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. The disturbing scenes were shown repeatedly on news networks which undeniably made it troublesome to keep it from haunting the nation’s cognizance (“Space”). The current president had more than situation to address, he had the problematic undertaking of gracefully picking America back up by its boot straps.
Schaller, Michael Reckoning with Reagan. America and Its President in the 1980s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992