In order to understand tone,
I want to do a comparison case.
It's a regrettable one, but very instructive.
Two presidents both talking about two separate Space Shuttle tragedies.
We're going to listen to both speeches and then analyze the tone differences.
So to begin with,
one of the best known examples of American eloquence is
President Ronald Reagan's 1986 speech
following the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger.
Public address scholars have always put it in the top 10 American speeches.
Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream holds at first place,
but Reagan's addresses is usually in the top three or so.
Let me go ahead and give you a little bit of context.
So, on January 28th 1986,
the Space Shuttle Challenger took off and almost immediately exploded.
This was on live national television.
In fact, one of the crew members was a civilian school teacher named Christa McAuliffe.
So, schools and school children had been encouraged to watch it live.
I was one of them. This was a huge public violent tragedy.
Now, Reagan had been scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address that night.
They scrapped that and he delivered this speech instead.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'd planned to speak
to you tonight to report on the state of the Union,
but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans.
Today is a day for mourning and remembering.
Nancy and I are pained to the core of the tragedy of the Shuttle Challenger.
We know we share this pain with all the people of our country.
This is truly a national loss.
Nineteen years ago, almost to the day,
we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground.
But, we've never lost an astronaut in flight.
We've never had a tragedy like this.
Perhaps we've forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the Shuttle.
But they the Challenger Seven were aware of the dangerous and overcame them,
and did their jobs brilliantly.
We mourn seven heroes;
Michael Smith, Dick Scobee,
Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair,
Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe.
We mourn their loss as a nation together.
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.
They had that special grace,
that special spirit that says,
"Give me a challenge and I'll meet it with joy."
They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths.
They wished to serve and they did.
They served all of us.
We've grown used to wonders in this century.
It's hard to dazzles us.
But for 25 years,
the United States Space P Program has been doing just that.
We've grown used to the idea of space,
and perhaps we forget that we've only just begun.
We're still pioneers.
They, the members of the Challenger crew were pioneers.
I want to say something to the school children of America who were
watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff.
I know it's hard to understand,
but sometimes painful things like this happen.
It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery.
It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons.
The future doesn't belong to the faint-hearted,
it belongs to the brave.
A challenger crew was pulling us into the future,
and we will continue to follow them.
I've always had great faith in and respect for our space program.
What happened today does nothing to diminish it.
We don't hide our space program.
We don't keep secrets and cover things up.
We do it all upfront and in public.
That's the way freedom is and we wouldn't change it for a minute.
We will continue our quest in space.
There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews,
and yes more volunteers, more civilians,
more teachers in space. Nothing ends here.
Our hopes and our journeys continue.
I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA,
or who worked on this mission and tell them
your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades,
and we know of your anguish.
We share it. Here's a coincidence today.
On this day, 390 years ago, the great explorer,
Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama.
In his lifetime, the great frontiers were the oceans,
and the historian later said,
"He lived by the sea,
died on it, and was buried in it."
Well, today we can say of the Challenger crew;
their dedication was like Drake's, complete.
The crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger
honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives.
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. Thank you.
Now the situation with President Bush was different.
On February first 2003,
the Space shuttle Columbia was attempting to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.
So, the mission was coming to a close.
Some of the heat shielding had been damaged and the shuttle failed.
It broke apart upon re-entry.
Five hours later, President Bush delivered this speech.
My fellow Americans, this day has brought terrible news and great sadness to our country.
At nine o'clock this morning,
Mission Control in Houston lost contact with our Space Shuttle Columbia.
A short time later,
debris was seen falling from the skies above Texas.
The Columbia is lost.
There are no survivors.
On board was a crew of seven;
Colonel Rick Husband, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Anderson, Commander Laurel Clark,
Captain David Brown, Commander William McCool,
Dr. Kalpana Chawla, and Ilan Ramon,
a Colonel in the Israeli Air Force.
These men and women assumed great risk in the service to all humanity.
In an age when space flight has come to seem almost routine,
it is easy to overlook the dangers of travel by rocket,
and the difficulties of navigating the fierce outer atmosphere of the earth.
These astronauts knew the dangers,
and they faced them willingly.
Knowing they had a high and noble purpose in life.
Because of their courage and daring and idealism,
we will miss them all the more.
All Americans today are thinking as well of the families of
these men and women who have been given this sudden shock and grief.
You're not alone. Our entire nation grieves with you.
Those you love will always have the respect and gratitude of this country.
The cause in which they died will continue.
Mankind has led into the darkness beyond
our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand.
Our journey into space will go on.
In the skies today,
we saw destruction and tragedy.
Yet farther than we can see,
there's comfort and hope.
In the words of the prophet Isaiah,
"Lift your eyes and look to the heavens.
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength not one of them is missing."
The same Creator who names the stars,
also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today.
The crew of the Shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth.
Yet we can pray that all are safely home.
May God bless the grieving families,
and may God continue to bless America.
Now, in the next video, we'll examine how these speakers create their different tones.
Dr. Matt McGarrityPrincipal Lecturer
