This speech was a well-known eulogy which was delivered by the 40th US President Ronald Wilson Reagan in 28th January 1986 regarding the people who lost their lives as a result of an explosion of the space shuttle Challenger (Kramer, 1992).
During his speech, President Reagan had several objectives which he wanted to achieve. First, he wanted to show the public that the death of those astronauts was a big loss not only to their families but to the entire nation. The president achieved this objective by expressing how his family was saddened by the tragedy and also termed the astronauts’ death a national loss. He also had an objective of eliminating fear among the citizens who would in future like to participate in space exploration. He achieved this by explaining to the nation how the US had never had such a tragedy before and how the government was going to do everything possible to ensure nothing like that ever happens again. President Reagan also intended to encourage Americans to have courage in what they do regardless of the circumstances, and he achieved this objective by reminding the nation of the courage it took the shuttle crew to do their work excellently despite being aware of the dangers. President Reagan had an objective of showing the nation that despite the astronauts’ death, America will always remember them. This objective was achieved by mourning the seven heroes who lost their lives and even mentioning them by their names (Lule, 1990).
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The president clearly knew what objectives he wanted to achieve and exactly how to achieve them and this clearly highlights the power of written and spoken word to influence people and history.
References
Kramer, R. C. (1992). The space shuttle challenger explosion. White collar crime reconsidered , 214-243.
Lule, J. (1990). The political use of victims: The shaping of the Challenger disaster. Political Communication , 7 (2), 115-128.
