Ronald Reagan's Challenger Speech

Ronald Reagan’s Challenger Speech begins by giving tribute to the astronauts aboard the Challenger. However, it left Reagan apologizing for having to postpone his planned State of the Union address. Although he expresses Mrs. Reagan’s personal grief along with his own personal grief, Reagan especially calls out to the schoolchildren of America who were viewing this event live as the shuttle took off. He did this to bring awareness to teachers and parents who were impacted or not, and to help them understand the realism of the event. He states that today is a “day for mourning and remembering”, and that the accident is “truly a national loss”. Reagan admits, “We share this pain with all of the people of our country”. Reagan’s show of emotion calms and reassures the Nation that he understands their sorrow, for not only the Challenger astronauts, but also their families and those impacted by this event.
Michael E. Eidenmuller, in his book Great Speeches described the situation: “In addressing the American people on an event of national scope, Reagan would play the role of national eulogist. In that role, he would need to imbue the event with life-affirming meaning, praise the deceased, and manage a gamut of emotions accompanying this unforeseen and yet unaccounted-for disaster. As national

eulogist, Reagan would have to offer redemptive hope to his audiences, and particularly to those most directly affected by the disaster” (Eidenmuller, 64).
The tragic event that happened on January 28, 1986, is indeed factual.

Reagan states the purpose of his speech from the very beginning and he has captured the attention of the audience. The Challenger speech was not an argument per say, but rather a speech to comfort those who viewed it, commemorates the brave astronauts, and to find meaning. Without being disrespectful to the families of those lost on the Challenger, Reagan acknowledged that this type of event has happened nineteen years before and that as a nation they did overcome the pain of the previous event. He mentions us as a nation, will not mourn their losses individually, but we will come together as one and

recover.
Many know Ronald Reagan as the “Great Communicator”. Reagan was very intelligent; he did not read off cue cards, instead, he went off memory. He showed empathy and moral characters in his demeanor. He demonstrated preponderating of verbalization and was facile to critique because of the situation, the content of his verbalization, his credibility, and his distribution.