- Today, I'm going to react
to Ronald Reagan's 1986 speech on January 28th
when he was responding to the Challenger Shuttle Explosion.
And most viewers will know this
but there's a launch that morning of a space shuttle,
seven crew, including one school teacher.
And it exploded not long after launch.
I think it was not even two minutes into launch.
And almost the entire nation and excluding all the kids
in school are watching this on television at the time
because there was a school teacher here
and everybody wanted to get on board
and get excited about this launch.
So that night Ronald Reagan addresses the nation.
So this is a same day speech.
And when something like this happens,
and the public speaking world
we say that there's an exigence.
There's a felt need for somebody to say something about it.
And so here it is.
Here's Ronald Reagan's famous speech
when the challenger exploded.
And I'm going to look at this and pause it a couple
of times to point out some things that I notice
- Ladies and gentlemen, I'd planned to speak
to you tonight to report on the state of the union.
The events of earlier today
have led me to change those plans.
Today is a day for morning and remembering.
Nancy and I are paying to the core of the tragedy
of the Shuttle Challenger.
We know we share this pain
with all of the people of our country.
This is truly a national loss.
- So right here in the opening,
he's defining the situation for us.
He's letting us know this is the day for morning.
This is a day for acknowledging
this horrible thing that happened.
He's defining, this is his main point is defining the point
of his address.
He was gonna talk about the state of the union,
but now he's talking about this.
- 19 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
and perhaps we've forgotten the courage it took
for the crew of the shuttle.
But they, the Challenger Seven were aware of the dangers
and overcame them and did their jobs brilliantly.
We mourn seven heroes, Michael Smith, Dick Scobee,
Judith Resnick, 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 a 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 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 wish to serve and they did.
They served all of us.
We've grown, used to wonders in this century.
It's hard to dazzle us,
but for 25 years the United States Space 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.
- This is really amazing.
So he's giving us context
especially people who may have forgotten how dangerous,
how dangerous this space program is.
There wasn't an accident for a long time
and never anything like this.
He's reading the astronauts names,
which is one of the things we do when we've lost people
and just reminding us of how brave they were
and that spirit of adventure
that they had to take on a challenge like this.
And reminds us that we're still pioneers
and this is still a dangerous job.
So he's given context for what happened.
- And 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.
The Challenger Crew was pulling us into the future
and we'll continue to follow them.
- So this is totally amazing here.
So now he's talking to the school children
and he has been talking to them all along.
Right, they're watching but now he's specifically saying it,
acknowledging, look, I know a lot of the few
are watching this happen this morning.
That's the way they promoted it.
But he's also talking to his three key audiences
so far here.
He talked to the nation at the very beginning,
he talked to the families of the crew,
and now he's talking to these kids.
He's starting to cover his bases here
in terms of the listeners,
the audience that he knows is listening.
And he's speaking to each of these groups
in a way individually, even though it's a overall speech.
- I've always had great faith in and respect
for our space program.
And 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'll continue our quest in space
that would have been more shuttle flights
and more shuttle crews.
And yes, more volunteers, more civilians,
more teachers in space, nothing in is 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."
- So now he's talking to the fourth audience, NASA,
the people who were on the job this day,
launching this shuttle.
And I can only imagine this must, the word demoralizing
can't possibly capture what NASA employees
who are going through.
Especially now, in retrospect, we know that some of them
knew that this tragedy was preventable.
So he's speaking to them.
And I'm also noticing that he started this
with the children and now he's continuing it with NASA.
He is starting to look toward the future here.
He's talking now about the future and he did it so smoothly.
You can barely notice it at the beginning
of the speech he's talking about,
of course the astronaut's accident, but also the past
and how we forgotten how dangerous it is.
And we've got a long tradition here and the space program.
And then when he started talking to the kids,
he talked about how we have to take great risks
to do these great things.
And he's talking of course now to NASA,
and he's literally saying
thank the quote is nothing stops here.
I will put the full text
of this speech in the description below the video.
So you can see it word for word, nothing stops here.
He's talking about we're gonna continue to do this.
So now he has fully shifted his focus looking forward.
It was looking back and now it's looking forward.
- There'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 where the oceans
and the historian later said he lived by the sea,
died on it and was buried in it.
Or today we can say of the Challenger Crew,
their dedication was like Drake's complete.
The crew or the space shuttle challenger honored us
for 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.
- Oh my word.
So, I've heard in public speaking, they call it a left hook.
When the speaker finally comes around at the end
of a presentation and gives you a little something extra
that you didn't know was coming.
And this is his, this is his left hook.
He starts it by talking about Sir Francis Drake,
how he lived, died and was buried at the sea.
And like him, the astronauts dedication was complete.
Wow!
Now, I don't know how they found this out.
That was hundreds of years before.
They must have had a team of people
working on this speech to get it ready this quickly
because that is amazing to find that and to use it.
And it says it better than we could say it.
To use that parallel just brings that sacrifice
and that dedication of the astronauts
into focus more clearly because it connects it
to our overall journey,
as people, as humans beings, as explorers.
And then he also uses some beautiful and poetic language
that they slipped the surly bonds of earth
to touch the face of God.
And I remember after this speech, people said,
"Well was that Shakespeare?
You know, where was he getting that quotation from?
'Cause it doesn't sound like the rest.
And I looked into it and it was from an author,
a poet, a 19-year old pilot in world war II
named John Gillespie Magee Jr.
He was 19 years old when he wrote
that was about flying 'cause he was a pilot
and he died a year or two later in world war II.
So connecting the life of a pilot, the job of a pilot
to that of astronauts is just through a palm.
It's really powerful.
So big picture backing out of this.
He spoke to all the right audiences;
the nation, the family, the school children watching.
And of course NASA and all the people that work there,
he struck the right tone.
He was empathetic, dignified, presidential.
His message basically reassured us
that we can get through this.
This is a horrible thing
but we can get through it together.
And if he says we can get through it
in this parental kind of style,
then we can get through it together.
He's saying so and I believe him.
And he also of course reminded us
of the longer story of humanity and the process
as he reacted to this tragedy,
a longer story as people who will continue
to push the boundaries, to push ourselves
and to learn and explore new things.
So this is just an incredible moment
of communication in our nation's history.
You can see why they show this
in a lot of public speaking classes and so forth.
It's just amazing.
Whoa! So who else would you like me to react to?
I would love to hear your suggestions
and comments in that section below the video
and don't forget to take a look
at some other resources that I have
in the description below.
So make a comment in the comment section.
That's the way I should have said it
and take a look at the free resources
in the description below the video.
And I look forward
to having a conversation with you down there.
So until next time, thanks, God bless
and I will see you soon.