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Charles Krauthammer The Moon We Left Behind Analysis

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A Critique of Charles Krauthammer’s “The Moon We Left Behind”
In 2009, President Obama’s decision to halt mission trips to the moon until 2020 sparked a response from Charles Krauthammer. Charles Krauthammer is an American columnist, author, political commentator, and physician. The New Yorker was born in 1950. He is a Pulitzer Prize Winner. The article was titled “The Moon We Left Behind”. In his article, Charles Krauthammer, recalls the astonishing accomplishment of traveling to the moon by American astronauts in 1969. Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. This was the first American voyage to the moon. The Russians had already …show more content…

His level of curiosity is peaked as elaborates on the historic accomplishments dating back to Kitty Hawk in 1903. This recollection shows how far off the ground to the moon that man has traveled. The distinct distant explains the levels of exploration done by humans. His desire for man to return to the moon is evident. He spoke of the outcomes of NASA’s findings. His opposition of President Obama’s decision is clearly seen in the article. Secondly, he elaborations on his opinion using sarcasm. His focus points include the desire for human explorations, the expenses that will be used for the expeditions, and the fact that Americans will behind other countries if we don’t return to the …show more content…

He speaks about a subject of great importance and his facts can be proven, however his tactics are distasteful. His comparisons have little if any vility. My rebuttal to the article can be considered as partial. I don’t entirely agree when he compares the thrill to explore verses the need to resolve poverty in America. Poverty on earth needs to be equally addressed. Today, forty-six million Americans live in poverty. As long, as human life exit so will problems, not necessary poverty. This is a much simpler contrast. Poverty may be resolved one day. Problems are solvable when ample effort is given to a situation. Krauthammer stated that himself, when he discussed the proposition given by President Kennedy. The distasteful sarcastic comparison was an effort to make readers understand his opposition of the President’s decision. I agree with the author’s ambitious desires for exploration and adventure. Mankind was born with a creative and challenging brain. The human brain is the most complex object in the universe. The brain is hard-wired and the desire to explore never leaves a person. Why kill the desire to discover the unknown? Why limit intellectual capacity of a human brain to Earthly voyages? His statements about America falling behind other countries has some truth. The truth is only when it comes to visiting the moon and outer space. This competitive statement was injected to fuse the reader’s mindset and cause the audience to side

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The speaker Ayn Rand, was incredibly passionate throughout the entire commentary. She addresses the fundamental significance of Apollo 11, stating that it is not political; it is philosophical. The audience for this particular situation would be anyone who enjoys commentaries. This publication was created by Rand, for the sole purpose of putting forward her philosophy of objectivism. The subject of this commentary was to talk about mankind itself, and how Apollo 11 completely redefined what it means to be a human.

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Later that night President Ronald Reagan came on air to give the State of the Union address and talk on the tragedy that had just unfolded. Through this speech President Reagan consoles the families of those who lost their lives, the American schoolchildren, and the American public as a whole. He also gives this speech to reassure America of the viability of the NASA program and the light in the future. By the use of rhetorical skill, including analogy, strong emotional appeals, and his position of power, President Reagan manages to convince America that despite the tragedy the benefits of keeping a space exploration program greatly outweigh the losses.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson writer of “Back to The Final Frontier,” is an astrophysicist writer and science communicator. With Tyson’s knowledge on the aerospace industry, he describes in his article what it will take for America to remain the leading superpower in space. While reading his article, I found that Neil deGrasse Tyson does an excellent job at persuading his audience by establishing credibility, with great evidence to support his case, and to support his case he offers effective strategies of reasoning, while organizing it well for the reader to understand. Tyson is quick to start establishing credibility in the first sentence stating, “Spring 2001, amid the manicured lawns of the Princeton University campus, I was recumbent in an office chair with my mind in the universe when the phone rang. It was the White House.

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World War II was a tragic event that affected many people, and countries. Many people that were Jewish were tortured and broken down in horrible ways during this time. WWII consisted of Adolf Hitler gaining power, and taking jews away from their families and taken to death camps. Eva is a holocaust survivor that has told her story about her and her twin sister. Eva describes her experience as “Hell on Earth.”

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In persuading the audience of his credibility, the overall effectiveness of the article will shoot up along with it. Another Counter-argument that he uses is “the more poetic among us say that NASA has given millions hope, that it is a symbol of ingenuity and ambition of the human race” (Yost). He sympathizes with the audience and takes in the viewpoint of the opposition. It makes people believe that he is giving them an effective argument.

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(Dennis 714) By giving the members of the space shuttle crew a recognition as “pioneers”, the speech was poised for a smooth transition from its nature as sincere eulogy into a rhetorical work with a deliberative occasion. As soon as audience received a message implying that Challenger was a beginning instead of an end and how discovery has its risk, Ronald Reagan was in a good position to elaborate his objectives on the space program. Surely, the transition between the bad news and the new hope is one of the greatest features of the speech.

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He remembered the stories as a child, about his ancestors dreaming of going to mars, and how his grandfather was one of the first people to journey to the red planet. He remembered it was nothing like they said, and the oxygen was breathable and not something lethal that would kill humans in seconds. He remembered how his grandfather used to talk about Zach’s great-great-great grandfather, who was the first one to go to the moon. He knew that space exploration was a huge part of their family's bloodline, and he hoped that he could travel to another moon, or explore a new galaxy.

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“In his life time the great frontier were the oceans” (7). The symbolism expresses the passion Drake had for traveling on the sea. Which expresses the message to the nation that the seven astronauts passion was to seek adventures like the one they were loss on. Reagan’s use of rhetorical tools creates an optimistic thought to the all citizens that the seven astronauts passion and bravery has just started their

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General Thomas P. Stafford was a pretty outstanding astronaut and man. He always worked hard and tried his best. The hard work paid off when he received his doctorate of laws, one of science, another for aeronautical engineering, and another in communications and humanities. This shows that Stafford was pretty well rounded in the subjects and that he was dedicated. These facts interested me because of two things.

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Former President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, in his address to the nation about the Challenger explosion, distinguishes the terrifying news of the explosion of the space shuttle. Reagan's purpose is to remember the lives lost in this painful accident and to ensure that space program will keep our faith with its future in space. He adopts a sorrowful tone in order to acknowledge all the courage and breakers that those seven astronauts expressed to his nation. Reagan opens his tribute to the Challenger astronauts by recognizing that this accident delayed his State of the Union address and by showing the pain of him and his wife’s grief. He appeal to the emotions of the listeners by expressing that “today is a day for mourning and remembering” (Reagan, 1986), that he and his wife are “pained to the core” (Reagan, 1986), and that we all know that this accident is “truly a national loss” (Reagan, 1986).

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In 1969, the first person landed on the moon. One of the astronauts that walked on this faraway planet made a famous speech, “This is one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind.” This was a huge event for America and for the world, but do we need to remember it and study it forever? Since that historic day, hundreds of rockets have gone into space. We have explored other planets, including Mars, and I am sure that as technology advances, someday people will live on other planets.

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