TOW #20- Challenger Speech by Ronald Reagan

 

Reading goal: Analyze a piece besides a regular a news story

Writing goal: provide detailed but concise analysis
   
 There can be no progress without sacrifice. On January 28^th, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded upon take-off, killing all seven astronauts aboard. In his speech later addressing the nation about this tragedy, President Ronald Reagan expressed his grief and condolences towards those affected, as well as the impact of the legacy left by the astronauts. He spoke of the bravery of the astronauts and also the future of the United States space program. Through his use of empathetic diction and appeal to pathos, Reagan effectively consoles a nation shocked by such a tragedy.
     Reagan’s uses powerful diction throughout his speech. He says, “For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we're thinking about you so very much. Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit …They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us.” By directly addressing the families of the seven astronauts and using the unifying word “we”, Reagan echoes the sympathy felt by all Americans . He also repeats the word “special” and “serve”, acknowledging the astronauts as invaluable individuals who exemplified service. Reagan furthers the power of his speech by appealing to emotion. He says “Nancy and I” when talking about his own reaction to the tragedy, making the statement seem more personal with the mention of his wife’s name. He also ends with a poignant allusion to a poem by  John Gilliepie Magee Jr., an American aviator who died before his time as well. Reagan says, “We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."”  By ending his speech on a uplifting note, Reagan is telling the nation that the space program will not be shaped by this disaster and will continue to advance into the future.
     Ronald Reagan was the President and speaker, and therefore the figurehead of American exploration and advancement. The audience of this speech is the American public, most of whom had seen the take-off on television. In his speech however, Reagan especially addresses the children, the future explorers and pioneers of the nation, who had watched the tragedy unfold while at school. In a fatherly way, the president explained that the future belongs to the brave, and that unfortunately accidents happen. The occasion is the Challenger tragedy, which happened to coincidently be on the same day as the State of the Union Address. This is why Reagan uses a solemn and grave tone throughout. Reagan’s purpose was to eulogize the astronauts and assure that the United States would continue to expand its space program.  Despite the great loss, seven heroic men and women died for the sake of something they loved and believed in.

TOW #19: Media-Coca Cola Ad

In this Superbowl Coca Cola advertisement, the song "America the Beautiful" is sung in quite a few different languages. Accompanying the song are images of American families of all different ethnicities. The advertisement displays just typical scenes like people eating, playing, or traveling. It begins with a classically "American" scene of a man in a cowboy hat and ends with a symbol of a Coca Cola bottle with the #AmericaisBeautiful. Throughout the ad., there is also subtle Coke advertising as the people are portrayed holding Coca Cola bottles in some scenes.
Coke mainly plays upon an appeal to pathos in this ad. Through the use of "America is Beautiful" and its depiction of the "American melting pot", it strikes a feeling of patriotism. The strong emotion associated with patriotism then serves to make the ad. more memorable.What's interesting about Coke is that it doesn't need to use explicit advertising, since most of the world already knows its product. The more understated ways the product is expressed in the commercial give the ad. a somewhat bigger purpose of celebrating the diversity of America, and not just promoting Coca Cola. At the same time, this ties Coca Cola with being truly an "American" drink.
Coca Cola's ad. is effective mainly because it targets the right audience. This ad. was shown during the Superbowl, which is considered as a pretty important yearly event in the U.S. Americans all over the country are watching, so the ad. is very easy to relate to since it's celebrating the beauty of the very country that the most of the ad's audience is from. And just as America is proud of its football, it's also proud of its diversity. By basing the ad. off this fact, Coca Cola successfully creates a strong emotional association with its product. Of course, it also adds the #AmericaIsBeautiful to keep people buzzing about the ad. on social networking sites even after the superbowl, further spreading the product.
The Coca Cola company was founded in 1892 Asa Griggs Candler. The current CEO of the company is Muhtar Kent.

IRB # 3 Post: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

The book that I plan to read this marking period is The Glass Castle. This is a memoir by an author who had a very unconventional upbringing. She and her family constantly moved when she was a child, traveling from the deserts of the mid-west to Phoenix to Tennessee, often living in abandoned houses. Jeannette's mother was a free-spirited artist and her father a brilliant man who also drank and lied. One of my friend's recommended me this book, which is why I plan to read it. The author's adventures sound almost fantastical. Sometimes, just sometimes, I wish I would have an interesting upbringing like her.

TOW # 18: To Help the World's Poor, Give them Real Jobs by Charles Kenny

There is a discrepancy between what statistics show and what developing countries experience. In this article, Charles Kenny describes the world's "self-employed"- people who often make little money and are part of an unseen "informal sector". Most of the 1.3 billion workers who make less than $2-a-day work in this sector. Understanding the "self-employed" in developing countries is crucial to tackling the big problems of economy development and poverty and helping  citizens who continue to depend on informal occupations that make volatile pay.

Throughout the essay the author uses various rhetorical devices and strategies. Primarily, he focuses on statistics to make a cohesive logical argument. He writes, "That low productivity helps to explain why, even though only around 200 million people in the world are considered unemployed by the ILO, 1.3 billion workers lived in families below the $2-a-day poverty line." This includes statistics from various countries as well, which adds to the broader importance of his argument. For example, Kenny cities statistics from India's shop-owners to Chinese farmers. Kenny also uses a rebuttal-style organization, where he states what opponents may believe can help the economy of these countries and then uses statistics to back why they are either wrong or to show a better method of action.

Overall, Kenny does make a convincing argument. His audience was probably Americans who care about business, as the article appeared in BusinessWeek and was also fairly easy to understand. The use of statistics really added to the author's credibility. However, he doesn't really cite a viable solution to this issue. Although he says the current method of helping economies in developing countries is not working, his solution is vague, which detracts from his credibility.

Charles Kenny is a senior fellow at the Center of Global Development and author of The Upside of Down: Why the Rise of the Rest is Great for the West.

TOW # 17: Ukraine Shows the "Color Revolution" Model is Dead by Anne Applebaum

Recently, the Ukrainian government has passed some dubious legislation that seems aimed at suppressing any recent civilian resistance. Some of the new legislation criminalizes all forms of "slander", which might include disagreement with the government, or a right to assemble. These new laws seem to reflect a growing Russian influence that the Ukranian government seems to have had. When citizens took to the streets to protest these new laws in Kiev, things turned violent and so far five people are dead. The surprising strength and ruthlessness of the Ukranian government seems to show that the "color revolutions", or more peaceful overturning of power, is in the past. So far, the United States has done little to address this issue, which may make the citizens want to use more violent means. The United States needs to reconsider its policies when it comes to dealing with governments like these.
The author uses various rhetorical devices in her argument. She uses the repetition of the word "they" when talking about the Ukranian government. Applebaum writes, "They have the cash to bribe a parliament’s worth of elected officials. They have the cynicism to revive the old Soviet technique of selective violence....They have also learned to manipulate media (as the Russians do) to multiply their money in Western financial institutions (as the Russians do), even to send threatening text messages. They have crafted a well-argued, well-funded, alternate narrative about Western economic decline and cultural decadence." This repetition acts as a sort of list to show how powerful the Ukranian government has become. Applebaum also uses humerous quotes to mock the lack of U.S response to this issue. Quoting a Canadian diplomat, she writes, "It's like watching a hockey game with only one team on the ice."
Overall, I think Applebaum achieved her purpose of attempting to show this problem and urging the United States to reconsider its policies in that area of the world. However, I think she underestimated the difficulty of the situation, especially the power of Russia. Her position, though well-intentioned, seems a bit naive.
Anne Applebaum is a Pulitzer-winning author and the director of the Global Transitions Program in the Legatum Institute in London.

TOW # 16- Hiroshima by John Hersey

Hiroshima follows the lives of six people who survive the desolation of the atomic bomb on their city. The first character introduced is Reverand Mr.Kiyoshi Tanimoto, followed by Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamaru, Dr. Matasakazu Fujii, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, Dr. Terufumi Sasaki, and Toshiko Sasaki. This section picks up to trace the lives of the people after the initial dropping of the bomb. Many of the major characters suffer minor injuries, but there are descriptions of those who have died and those who are gravely ill due to the fallout. It ends with a epilogue that includes a visit by the author many years later to see how each of the characters has been affected.
It seems clear that the author's purpose in writing Hiroshima was to inform the American public about the effects of the decision to drop the atomic bomb. This book, published in 1946 a year after the event occurred, sought to put faces on those who suffered at Hiroshima. There is a great appeal to pathos in this second section. For example, Hersey writes, "Mrs. Nakamura lay indoors with Myeko. They both continued sick, and though Mrs. Nakamaru vaguely sensed that their trouble was caused by the bomb, she was too poor to see a doctor and so never knew exactly what the matter was. " (pg 99). Hersey achieves his purpose by factually detailing the events that occurred and leaving out his own emotions in favor of the much more powerful emotions of his six characters. This is what ultimately affects the audience more.
Overall, I think that Hersey did achieve his purpose of objectively describing the lives of people affected by the dropping of the atomic bomb. He never once inserted his own opinion into the piece, he merely shared their stories. And that was a more powerful force than anything just one opinion could evoke.
John Hersey was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist who wrote for Time Magazine and The New Yorker.

TOW #15: "How Can We Help Men? By Helping Women" by Stephanie Coontz

In her article about the position of women in today's economy, Stephanie Coontz argues that rather than first looking to help women shatter the glass ceiling (the forces keeping women from entering the higher rungs of the corporate ladder despite their accomplishments) the nation should focus on "the sinking floor", which  is the growing problem of both men and women struggling with poverty. She says that female-based models to address this will be more effective, rather than the former masculine-based model constructed around the idea of a male breadwinner. In the past, it was mostly women who have worked the lower-wage jobs, but now, an increasing number of men are facing the same problems. By helping reduce the wage gap through implementing a "livable" minimum wage, establishing a wider safety net, and prioritizing child care, both men and women can be helped.

Coontz appeals to logos and uses repetition to further her argument. She says, " 2009, one in every four American workers earned less than two-thirds of the national median hourly wage, the highest proportion of low-wage work in 19 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, according to the economist John Schmitt of the Center for Economic and Policy Research." Coontz also establishes that the highest proportion of stay-at-home moms are married to men in the bottom 25% of wage earners. These statistics show that by helping the lower wage earners, men and women can both be helped. Towards the end she repeats the phrase "putting women first", which means that these policies are directly linked to putting women first but will greatly benefit men at the same time.

Coontz does not fully achieve her purpose because her "although" type thesis spends too much time on the "although" part and therefore slightly confuses her reader as to whether or not we should continue to pursue female-oriented policies even though women seem to be clearly doing better despite after the recession while men are still struggling. Her audience is probably policy-makers but also the general public.

Stephanie Coontz is an author, historian, and faculty member of Evergreen State College.