Swan Song From An Out-Of-Touch Response

Sandy Dahl once said “If we learn nothing else from this tragedy, we learn that life is short and there is no time for hate.” George Bush and Ronald Reagan both addressed a terrible tragedy in a public speech. During the aftermath of two horible tragedies George Bush delivers the 9/11 address and Ronald Reagan delivers the challenger address in order to calm the American people. The ways these events were handled have clear similarities, as well as obvious differences in the two president's use of repetition, pathos, and how the talk to the American people.

Tuesday morning, September 11 of 2001, referred to as a day to remember, the twin towers were attacked by terrorists in a hijacked plane. Thousands of lives were lost and it was a day that brought great sorrow to America. George W. Bush, the president at that time, addressed his speech to America as a nation, giving them hope that the events that took place earlier that day would not shake them but that they would come back stronger. In this essay I will evaluate Bush’s formal 9/11 Address to the Nation and discuss the speaker’s appeals to pathos, logos and ethos to convey his message that America can stand tall as one.

December 14, 2012 was a heartbreaking day for America, as twenty children and six adults lost their lives in a school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. Two days later, President Barack Obama addressed the nation with an interfaith prayer vigil at Newtown High School to help remember those who had lost their lives, and also to convince the nation that changes need to be made. Obama asked America to make an effort to prevent future tragedies such as this one by caring for our children and using our power to help those around us. Through the use of eulogy, appealing to emotions, and structure, the speech attempts to persuade its audience, America, to make an attempt to avoid future tragedies in order to protect our citizens and to help make America a safer place.

President George W. Bush uses pathos in his speech to help unify the people. His wording has people feeling shocked, surprised, and angry. He reasons the cause for the attack was because “we’re the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world” (Bush 7). Bush successfully vilifies the enemy, as it is still strong today, to unify the citizens under a common enemy. He continues pathos with a justice-seeking tone on how he will bring justice to those responsible. With compassion and hope, Bush asks people to pray on behalf of those affected by the

The first thing Obama does in his speech is mention the events of 9/11. He recalls it as a “the worst attack on the American people in our history.” He continues giving his audience a idea of a horrible event full of death. He is using a form of rhetoric known as pathos. He does this to pull on people’s emotions getting their attention and reminding them of the past. By doing this Obama unites peoples thoughts making them think the same thing and re-ignite the American people’s urge for revenge on Al Qaeda.

The president appeals primarily to pathos by listing ordinary people who fell victim to “deadly terrorist attacks.” He draws upon the audience’s feelings of anger and sorrow by including “moms and dads, friends and neighbors” among the murdered. President Bush details the efforts of different parts of the government to guarantee safety and stability. He guarantees his audience that everything possible is being done to find the terrorists who were responsible for the attacks. Also, the president shows pathos by saying this “Tonight, I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened.”

Gail Collins, an American writer known for writing under the opinion pages for the The New York Times, has turned the recent presidential debate, into something comical. In Gail’s most recent articles, “How Could Anyone Vote for Trump”, “The Dark Days of Donald Trump”, “Don’t Take Donald Trump to Dinner”, and “The Debate in One Scary Answer”, her purpose is to show that Donald Trump is not qualified to become the next president of the United States. In these four articles, her audience is the general educated reader that will be voting in the 2016 presidential election. Gail Collins has a recurring pattern of using the rhetorical modes; illustration and description. In addition, she uses the rhetorical strategies; metaphor, dialogue, and contrast

“Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned.” Within the article the tale of Cornel West`s ascension to fame and his descent into despair is rehashed all because he allowed his love for President Obama to turn sour. Giving a brief overview of the article it begins by discussing the distain that Cornel West harbors toward President Barack Obama, as the article continues on the initial tone that Dyson set is lost amongst the admiration and praise that Dyson holds for West. As the article persists Cornel west`s brilliance is highlighted by his personal works. However, toward the end of the article as Cornel West allows his contempt and hubris to cloud his judgement his vision of the future becomes shrouded in darkness. His work begins to stagnate and his descent into despair from fame drives him “mad”. West`s coup de grâce to his career was turning against his supporters in a fit of rage. The article The Ghost of Cornel West by Eric Dyson reads like a Greek tragedy written from a firsthand perspective. It is possible that the reason it reads like a Greek tragedy is because Dyson`s has a personal grudge against West.

The president of the United States emerged from the north White House Lawn to the waiting press and cameras. With a brief smile and wave, he looked down at the scripted message written by his staff and personally edited to fit the mood of the nation about the incident at the resort and national security of the nation. It was going to be a monumental day. He looked up once more with a dire countenance this time...

In 2004 an elephant in the room was apparent as Margaret Thatcher was giving her eulogy for Ronald Reagan. During this time, the American people were dealing with the War on Terrorists. They had conflicting views on who should go and fight their battle. President George W. Bush had sent our men overseas to Iraq, and the citizens thought of this act as unfair. Margaret Thatcher, though not an American citizen, blended her feelings on this into her speech as though it were the real meaning behind her eulogy.

As President Carter begins to speak about some of the comments that stood out to him, in this meeting at Camp David, it is evident just how out of touch President Carter had become with American citizens. The statement, “If you lead, Mr. President, we will follow” (President Jimmy Carter "Crisis of Confidence", 1979), is a point that stuck out to me. I believe that deep down, whomever is our President, the majority of the people, merely want a leader. Along with someone that will listen to their plight, as reflected in this statement, “Many people talked about themselves and about the condition of our nation” (President Jimmy Carter "Crisis of Confidence", 1979).

Kennedy continues his appeal to emotion with a weaker, yet still successful attempt. Around election time, seemingly all American’s reveal their inner-patriot, understanding this Kennedy speaks to that inner patriot. Speaking of foreign affairs, he says, “…let every other power know that this Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.”(3) This appeal is successful, as speaking of the Hemisphere as a whole represents unity, and also reaches out to the pride within the audience, stating that Americans shall remain in power of all they have worked so hard to obtain.

One day there was this lethal and irate person who went to jail for first degree murder because he had killed the president's daughter. So the guy made the president infuriate because that was the president’s only daughter and she was about to get a college degree. He was furious because he had nobody to pass on his legacy. After a few weeks of being mad he had finally gotten over, but when he did, he made a fantastic speech that had made everyone inundate. The speech that was getting everyone inundate was that the president is going to intensified the use of weapons illegally, but some people were loath about that happening and some weren’t.

Confessing one 's political identity in 2016 truly embodies the phrase “walking on eggshells”. Whether you’re a liberal or conservative, owning up to your political resolutions sometimes comes with some intense backlash. In this years’ presidential election we have an intense candidate with very radical views, and if you don 't know who I’m talking about you should probably move from the rock you are living under. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has gained a immense popularity amongst not only the American public but Internationally as well. His chauvinist rhetoric, egotistical outlook, and how he continuously fabricates lies upon lies has truly brought him into the public eye. Hearing Trumps incredibly horrifying agenda makes me proud to admit that I am a Democrat, a solid liberal to be exact. As a solid liberal I believe in the power of the people and that means all people.Whether you are rich, poor, black, white, gay, or straight building and creating a nation that caters to people inherently means doing right by the economy and when we do well for the economy we do well for everyone.

I am going start in a manner outside the normal TPI model. I am going to start a post with a video segment, after a brief introduction. Over the weekend Fox New's Chris Wallace followed an obvious Fox News management goal of feeding its viewers unadulterated propaganda regrading the nation's 44th President. Wallace sat with known and committed Obama hater, Brit Hume, for a few minutes of intellectually insulting garbage. The apparent theme of the Sunday morning show seem as if it was crafted to slam President Obama with deflection and mis-representation of the man as a "Divider." We will address the point of the segment below.