Before Katrina, Hurricane Andrew was the reigning champion of financially devastating natural disasters. It’s $26 Billion worth of damage happened mostly in South Florida (Wikipedia.org), but it’s arrival before the start of my third grade year at Coral Reef Elementary School altered the course of my life. I had slept through half the storm, but when I awoke it was time to get underneath a mattress with my little Sister in the master bedroom of the house. Our Mother held another mattress up against the sliding glass window of that room as water had begun to seep through the foundation of the house. After a certain amount of this chaotic time, my Dad went out into our living room and saw that a portion of the roof had been ripped out into the violent night and his rafters were glowing bright orange. Thinking our house to be on fire he moved us quickly through the house where I vividly remember looking up and seeing the gaping hole in our living room where I had eaten plenty of Macaroni and Cheese and cheered MacGyver and the Ninja Turtles out of many a tight situation. He got us into our mini van, opened the garage door and pulled out into the storm. To this day I have no idea where he intended to drive, and neither does he, but a branch had been downed in our driveway and we were stranded. After waiting through the night in a “duck and cover” type position in our van we emerged to a SW 140th Court that no nightmare could have prepared me for. Trees were downed everywhere, houses were mangled, our neighbors house across the street had burned to the ground (causing our rafters to reflect the glow of the fire, spooking my Dad.)

There were positives. My Nintendo survived, and another one was in our front yard. We got to live at the beach for a few weeks until my parents figured out what to do. The Army patrolling our neighborhood from looters had a lotion that made our sunburns stop hurting instantly. However, the trauma of having my childhood realm destroyed in front of my eyes at the hand of nature has been something I’ve lived with since I was eight years old.

There are plenty of pivotal moments in between that last one and this one, childhood crushes on girls in my classes, a move to suburban north Georgia from suburban South Miami that showed me how different yet similar people can be, and lots of baseball.

My second major life moment was my initial musical awakening. For as long as I can remember I’ve been very into music. I have always gravitated towards control of the radio ever since I could reach it, and I remember even at a young age having a keen since of musical timing and rhythm. My musical infatuation, late in my sixth grade year, was ignited into a full blown ecstatic obsession when I first heard “Smells Like Teen Spirit” at a “Sock Hop” at my Middle School. I suppose by ’96 the shock value of Nirvana’s debut album “Nevermind” and seemingly overnight mass appeal, and the suicide of “junkie” singer-songwriter Kurt Cobain had worn off enough for parents in the Southeastern United States to allow their children to absorb the band’s energy at a school sanctioned event. I thank God, or Zeus or fate or whoever deserves thanks for that. When I heard those opening chords it’s like something primal in me awoke and when the drums hit I could not help myself but to jump around and scream and feel alive. Over the next few months my tastes in music, radio stations, manner of dress, and preferences in everything changed. My parents were almost horrified as I’m sure they thought their son had found some fiendish cult to sign up with. Trouble followed however, as listening to more rebellious music led to thinking and acting perhaps a little more rebelliously. The Internet was crawling, in infancy and I found plenty of rebellious material on it. At the same time an interest in guitar playing led to lessons and eventually competency on the instrument that I still enjoy playing today. The path those rebellious interests led me down is another story, for another time but my musical growth will be discussed again later.

My next most formative out of many formative moments is my first trip to Tallahassee. I had not been accepted to UGA, considered by nearly everyone I went to High School with to be the standard by which a youth should live or perish. I’ve always tested well, but consistency has been a struggle. My parents taught me to keep broad interests and keep open as many doors as possible as long as possible. So I was playing baseball, playing guitar in bands, working on my Eagle Scout Award, and yeah I was still doing school but it got more than it’s fair share of backburner time. My Florida State acceptance letter came within two days of the completion of my file, while Georgia made me wait nearly 9 months to finally grow the balls to tell me “No.” It hurt at the time, but by then I had already been in Tallahassee for a preview day and I was sold. It was sunny, collegiate, and the women I saw were more than enough to convince any young heterosexual man to want to attend FSU. Tallahassee was then, and still is to me now, a gorgeous arena for a young man to start out his life; a Florida-Georgia offspring Elysium; a launch pad to the great cities of Florida that’s still within an afternoon drive of my Southeastern Metropolis, Atlanta.

Two years into my life in Tallahassee I came into possession of a recording made by an obscure progressive rock band called The Mars Volta. The recommendation came from my songwriting friend, a man whose opinion I hold in very high value. I had tried to listen to this stuff and it just sounded very dissonant. It didn’t seem like music to me because there were all these time changes and weird sound effects that I had never heard before. The first time through I felt a good deal of cognitive dissonance, and my attitude at the time was to turn it off. Make it go away. I was in a tough place at the time. An underage D.U.I. charge had left me without a driver’s license trying to attend school and work while living in my newly purchased house off of White Drive. The plan was to buy the house and get Florida residency so I could stop paying out of state tuition. A D.U.I. was not in the plan. Life had been tough but I had my fraternity pledges to help me get around some. Another set of hurdles I was facing as 120 hours of court ordered community service and alcohol counseling. It felt like taking 18 hours and working a job all year that year and my only comfort was my complete and absolute dive, head first into this album “De-Loused in the Comatorium.”

As I said it took a few listens, once it clicked though, I could not stop listening to it. My routine was; once or twice a day, headphones on, escapist journey into a psychedelic comatose odyssey. The album still frightens and excites me. I can only describe it as a complete masterpiece. It tells the story of a friend of the band who, after injecting rat poison into his veins enters a coma. The songs on the disc describe his experience and melt into one another and fit together more like a film than a set of different pieces. This is music to be absorbed in long sets. “De-Loused” was recorded in the Northern-California Mountains, at the haunted mansion where the Red Hot Chili Peppers created “Blood Sugar Sex Magik,” and where The Beatles first tripped on LSD. Listening to this music taught me to not fear complexity in art, and it taught me to pay attention closely to everything I can because you don’t always get five tries to discover something that will completely change your outlook on life.

My fifth moment is in itself a series of moments I experienced last summer when I went to London to study abroad. I left a girlfriend here to stay faithful to, and with relational worries behind me I plunged into an examination of British culture. My classes were unrelated to my major the Study of Communication; they were what I like to call my “cultural education.” I took Special Topics in Music: The British Invasion, and Introduction to Shakespeare. Our in town excursions took us to seven of the Bard’s plays, Abbey Road Studios, Paul McCartney’s Offices, and other sites of interest. Extracurricular fun included nights out on the town with Florida State girls in London (which is like being with Playboy Models in, well… a major metropolitan city without many Playboy Models), movie premieres where we were within feet of screen demons Johnny Depp, Val Kilmer and Vince Vaughn, the Live8 Concert for Africa that re-united Pink Floyd after 22 years of hiatus, and the announcement of London as the host city for the 2012 Olympics. I made it over to Paris and Amsterdam on side weekends, which I must say was amazing.

Terrorism darkened the joyous excursion into the culture that spawned America. The same week as the Live8 concert and London’s Olympic announcement explosions rocked a double-decker bus and three lines on the London Underground. I had been planning on a trip to a certain castle that would have had us on one of the lines that was hit, at the time of the bombing. The night before, my roommate Beth and I decided against the morning trip because we were out too late. Fortune or fate spared us from early morning disaster, but it is still very haunting. I was impressed by the British response, how they were on the buses later that very day as if to say “Fuck you, you can’t scare us.” I wrote an article on my reaction, and it was published in my hometown newspaper, my first credit.

These moments are times that I will never forget. I know they unconsciously mold and shape my every day decisions, and they will forever be a part of who I am. I cherish my time in Miami, Alpharetta, Tallahassee and London. If I had my way I’d split my year in four in those places. We learn in Communication Studies that our relationships carry not only their own weight, but also the weight of the combined experiences of the communicators. There are advantages in articulating and mapping these very important defining moments of the development of the psyche. This assignment has helped in the pursuit of Socrates’ charge to “know thyself.”

Cast of Characters:

Mimosa Springs
Jason Jates
Andrew Dice-Syndrome
The First Lady
The Second Lady
Darius Rutenstein
Phoenix Turner
Cleaning Lady
Hotel Manager
Sen. Orinn Hatch, [R] Utah
A Clown

Act I. Scene I.
The scene is of two buses loading outside the headquarters of the College Republicans of Florida State University. From the external décor it is apparent this is no normal group of political students; it is a raunchy, irresponsible, and decadent adventurers. Our heroes are heading to Charleston, S.C. for the Young Christian Republicans National Convention. They’re planning on getting down.

Mimosa: General Dice-Syndrome, are the vehicles gassed and loaded with women and booze?
ADS: That they are sir.
Mimosa: Glad to hear it. Is the First Lady rested and ready to imbibe?
ADS: Affirmative. And the Second Lady?
Mimosa: Prepared to sprint towards a full black out.
ADS: That’s what I like to hear.
(Enter Darius Rutenstein)
Rutenstein: The bus driver is being a dick about booze.
ADS: How so? By disallowing it to be consumed while the wheels go round and round?
Rutenstein: Nay, by tyrannically imposing that we use plastic cups.
Mimosa: By Jove!
ADS: This will not do.
Rutenstein: That’s not all. The douche bag is claiming that if anyone vomits on the bus, we’ll lose our security deposit.
ADS: I’ll handle this. (He exits)
(Enter first and second ladies)
Ladies: Hey guys, are you getting excited yet?
Mimosa: Of course we are, we anticipate crashing the Young Christian Republicans Meeting every year.
Second Lady: I know I can’t wait. I went last year and I didn’t even make it to Keynote speaker Pat Robertson’s Vaunted Speech on the elimination of foreign influence on the American Economy.
First Lady: It was epic; afterwards I reread The Book of Acts.
Mimosa: Great book.
Rutenstein: Yea, I’m a fan of chapters 3 through eight.
Mimosa: It’s got chap? – Uh, you guys pick up all the booze I specified?
Rutenstein: Won’t matter if we can’t drink it on the bus.
Mimosa: Oh we’ll drink it on the bus. Just you wait.
(Exeunt.)

Act I. Scene II.
On board the bus, everyone is drinking in red plastic cups. It is 10:30am on a Thursday. The bus hasn’t started the 6 hours trip to Charleston yet.

Rutenstein: Thanks for buying us those cups Mimosa.
Mimosa: No prob.
Ladies: Chug, chug, chug!!

(Mimosa chugs.)
(The ladies then chug.)

Act II. Scene I.
At a DoubleTree Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina. The first night of the Young Republicans National Convention has quite the effects. There are cans and bottles; cigarette butts stomped into the floor, pamphlets advancing all kinds of the most radical political ideas. Mimosa comes into consciousness having spent the night on the floor between the beds of his hotel room. His face is stuck to some literature about being a Knight in Christ’s’ Army. His date (Second Lady) is passed out sleeping in the wrong direction. Fellow Young Republicans Jason Jates and Phoenix Turner are also asleep in the room. Jates is on the bed with his date, and Turner is in the bathroom with his body wrapped around a toilet in the fetal position.

(Knocking Sound)
Mimosa: Ughh….
(Knocking Sound)
Mimosa: Christ…
(Gets up to check the door, it’s the cleaning lady come to take care of the room)
Mimosa: Umm..Could you come back later?
Cleaning Lady: How about you use the “Do Not Disturb Sign” that is by the phone.
Mimosa: (looks around towards the phone, seeing nothing…) Oh, okay, I will. (Under his breath) Sometime… today…(falls onto bed)
(Louder knock on the door)
Mimosa: I said I’d do it later!
ADS: (outside the door) It’s me man open up.
Mimosa: Shit, all right. (Lets Andrew in)
ADS: We’re in some shit man.
Mimosa: (plopping back down on the bed) What shit?
ADS: Is Phoenix Turner in here?
Mimosa: I don’t know man; you’re free to check.
ADS: (Finding Turner wrapped around the toilet) Turner you asshole! Do you even know what you did last night?
Phoenix Turner: (coming to..) Oh…um, what man? What time is it?
ADS: You screwed us all that’s what. Apparently you ran around the hotel, ripping off exit signs and throwing potted plants down onto terrified hotel guests in the hotel lobby.
Phoenix Turner: What man. Oh, where are we?
ADS: (losing patience) Charleston…South Carolina?
Phoenix: That’s right, the convention.
ADS: That’s right, the convention that you missed the first night of, because you drank an entire bottle of Jim Beam before we even got here.
Mimosa: That’s not all-true man. I had some of that.
ADS: Whatever, all right you’ve got to come with me and talk to the hotel manager, who’s been ripping into me all morning on the phone.
Turner: Ahh…not another meeting with a pissy old hotel manager.
Mimosa: I’m coming; I think I know how to handle this.
Jates: (just began stirring due to the activity in the room) …mm..Barbara Bush..
ADS: What the fuck?
Mimosa: Uh, all right lets get out of here.
(The three who’ve clearly had a rough start to the day head out for some complimentary Continental Breakfast before the showdown.)

Act III. Scene I.

Our heroes are in the thick of a verbal tirade with the hotel manager (who is doing most of the talking.)

Manager: …25 noise complaints!…13 requests for police intervention…7 new exit signs, and one walrus…where did you get a fucking walrus!?
ADS: Sir, the walrus I can’t see as having anything to do with our group.
Mimosa: Yea, I’d seriously doubt this is the first time you’ve had a walrus running through your lobby.
Manager: And how can you say that?
Mimosa: Well you’re in a very nice part of town right? Away from recent development, upscale suburban side of Charleston.
Manager: We pride ourselves on our location, yes.
Mimosa: Well, don’t you think with all that New development, perhaps the walrus population is being driven out here, to the nicer side of town?
Manager: Well, I seriously don’t think-
ADS: (following his lead) Absolutely, the walrus is the new raccoon. It’s something our party has investigated in this area.
Manager: Your party?
ADS: Yeah, well the Republican Party is looking to add the walrus to the endangered species list. What with all the walrus-splattering going on across all the highways in this great nation.
Turner: And sir, the exit signs, and potted plants, I don’t see how that was me. I mean I was indisposed.
Manager: You were?
Mimosa: This is true, he felt ill last night and had to come back to the hotel early, he couldn’t possibly have done these activities, at what time did you say the activities were?
Manager: The complaints were lodged largely between the hours of 11pm to 3 am last night.
ADS: And it was mostly rooms we’ve rented out?
Manager: The general area that we’ve booked your group, yes.
Mimosa: That can’t be. We’re scattered all over the hotel.
Manager: I don’-
Mimosa: And your precious Carolina Panthers won last night. Don’t you think perhaps all this ‘ruckus’ as you call it, could be at least partially attributed to an overtime playoff win?
Manager: Well, I..
ADS: Sir, how’d you vote in the last election?
Manager: Well, I..
ADS: Who?
Manager: I’m not very comfortable with this conversation anymo-…
Mimosa, ADS and Phoenix Turner: WHO??!!
Manager: (sheepishly surrendering) Kerry..
Mimosa: Aha! So there it is, your hotel got torn up last night and you want to pin it on us just because of who we are.
ADS: Profiling…
Manager: No, I…
ADS: Enough, I’ve had enough of this nonsense, we’re going back to our rooms to prepare for our seminar on “Re-Education and Why It Won’t Be As Bad as It Seemed in the Novel 1984.” If you’d excuse us.
Manager: ..but, security deposit..
Mimosa: Yes, we’ll come back for our security deposit before we leave, don’t you worry.
(Exeunt.)

Act III. Scene II.
Inside the Young Christian College Republican Convention in Charleston, South Carolina. The action takes place in a large meeting hall, carefully decorated by the National Young Christian Republicans Executive Board (a painfully exclusive group.) The scene is one of massive celebration, as the weekend’s keynote speaker is being introduced.

Clown: Ladies and Gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I present to you Senator Orinn Hatch of Utah!
Senator Orinn Hatch: Thank you thank you. Tonight’s presentation is on the evils of on-line file swapping and peer-t-peer protocols.
(Thunderous applause)
Senator Orinn Hatch: Ladies and Gentlemen, Respected alumni and distinguished guests of the Recording Industry Association of America, Governor and Mrs. Pruitt I thank you all for your attendance here tonight.
(Applause)

Senator Orinn Hatch: Friends, we gather this evening to discuss an issue with grave implications for all Americans.
(A pause, perhaps for dramatic effect)
Online file sharing is plaguing one of America’s most beloved institutions. The group of people who manufacture, create, and manipulate popular music in this country for the good of the Lord are being taken for a ride, and this Senator from Utah isn’t having it. Without the RIAA, and their magnificent oversight of musician-client relationships, and the mental and physical health of it’s touring members, the creative control of American music, and the wonderful influx of cash and credit into the economy (after they take their cut of course) where would we, as Americans, be?
Well, I’ve put forth a bill, which our boys fast-tracked through to a full vote in the Senate next week.  It’ll give the Justice Department sweeping powers to identify the pirates, and take them to an unspecified location for a process I call “Re-Education.”
Mimosa: (amongst the crowd of idiot faces) Re-education?
Orinn Hatch: You see these pour souls have had all their moral fiber run down by the corruption of society. They’ve come to believe that it is all right to take from others what is not rightly theirs!
Jates: …for downloading songs?
Orinn Hatch: Jesus does not want you downloading music, unless of course you get it from iTunes for a dollar a pop.
ADS: I’m not sure I want to hear the rest of this.
Mimosa: Dude, I’ve got 4,568 songs on my computer.
ADS: I know, I downloaded Chronicles of Narnia like six weeks before it came out in theatres.
Jates: That’s pretty cool.
Mimosa: Yea, pretty neat. Look I don’t know about this Hatch guy, and all these crazies with their repressive tendencies any more.
ADS: I haven’t bought a CD in like three years.
Mimosa: Me neither.
Jates: It seems a little strange. Perhaps it’s time for us to reexamine our beliefs.
ADS: Agreed, first thing in the morning.
(exeunt)

Act III. Scene III.
The walk back to the hotel.

Mimosa: This guy is nuts, he’s going to start locking people up for swapping tunes.
ADS: Yea, I thought the President had an iPod.
Jates: Yea, he was rocking to Fogerty and “My Shirona.”
Mimosa: Fogerty did “My Shirona?”
ADS: No dipshit, he had mostly Fogerty type stuff and old baby-boomer tunes on there.
Jates: And I’m sure he paid for all of them.
ADS: Well, I doubt he even did it, do you think he can use a computer?
Mimosa: Wouldn’t want to catch the attempt. So anyways’, we’re on the College Republicans trip, and we’ve just abandoned their ideology. What do we do now?

Act IV. Scene I.
The boys awaken in their hotel room in a similar fashion to the previous morning. However, they’ve lost their dates and Mimosa didn’t even make it to the room. He passed out on a couch in the lobby.

(Knocking on the door)
Jates: It says “Do Not Disturb” lady!
ADS: It’s me idiot, open up.
(Jates gets up and opens the door)
ADS: Well, we’re leaving today so it doesn’t really matter, but the guy said he’s throwing us out, we’re never to come here again, or even book a trip to a DoubleTree anywhere on this continent.
Jates: And the security deposit?
ADS: Oh, it’s long gone. They have videotape of Mimosa fighting an ice machine, and then he apparently shot off a few fire extinguishers.
Jates: Damn.
ADS: But hey, that was CR money, not ours. We’re off the hook as soon as we get back we should start up our own group to stand up to these people.
Jates: What about the College Democrats?
ADS: Ha! Are you kidding, we’re opposing a Republican position, and you want to enlist the help of the Democrats? That’s like taking the Leon County JV Baseball squad up against the Marlins. It’s just silly.
Mimosa: (stumbling into the room) Ohh, what happened?
Jates: Not sure, but they got you on tape.
Mimosa: Really?
ADS: Yeah, in fact we should get out of here; the bus should be ready to go soon.
(Exeunt.)

Act IV. Scene II.
Ride home to Tallahassee, last half hour. Affirmation of anti-Hatch beliefs. Argument with Darius Rutenstein about file swapping. Boy’s shut him down. Everyone gets on the bus. Guys get off the bus and quit.

Jates: So what are we going to call ourselves?
Mimosa: How about the Coalition to Destroy The Hatch Initiative and Entrust Virtual Enterprising Software?
ADS: Um…CDTHIEVES?
Mimosa: Oh, good point that probably wouldn’t work out.
(Enter Rutenstein)
Darius Rutenstein: Whatcha guys talking about? I didn’t see you at the reception for Senator Hatch.
Jates: Senator Hatch sucks.
Rutenstein: What?! Are you kidding me? He’s going to rid the world of online piracy forever. This is a central protection of our freedom!
Mimosa: Darius, what do you know about protection of freedom?
Rutenstein: I know that we as Young Republicans are charged with fostering the belief that…
Mimosa: There it is right there. You’re fostering beliefs, not actually believing them.
ADS: Do you think Jesus is going to charge us a dollar per song in Heaven?
Rutenstein: No, but artists should be compensated for their work…
Mimosa: Yea, ARTISTS should. Not the fat cat label suits that line the pockets of your beloved Utah senator.
Rutenstein: But if not for the RIAA, would we have ever heard of Britney Spears? The Backstreet Boys? NSYNC? LFO? 98 Degrees? Ashlee Simpson? Avril Lavigne?
Jates: Hell no we wouldn’t have. And that would’ve been nice.
Rutenstein: You guys are terrible, I’m telling the rest of the group. You guys are out.
Mimosa: We know, we quit this stupid shit.

Act IV. Scene III.
Argument with the bus driver over vomitus on the bus. Rutenstein loses…

Bus Driver: All right, you’re not getting your security deposit back, but you are going to clean up this mess.
Rutenstein: But, you said we’d get it back if..
Bus Driver: If none of them crazy fools you call friends vomited on the bus, that’s right.
Rutenstein: Someone vomited on the bus?
Bus Driver: You can’t smell that?
Rutenstein: Smell what?
Bus Driver: You got to be kidding me, come here man- aw!..No, step away you’re covered in it!
Rutenstein: I am?!?
Bus Driver: Yeah, you idiot. Now clean up my bus, and get off of it!
Rutenstein: I hate my life.

Six months have passed since the President delivered the State of the Union (Jan. 27th, 2006), which is ample time to judge the public response to the speech. On February 16th 2006, according to a Harris Interactive Poll “any benefit President Bush may have gained from the State of the Union speech didn’t last long enough to be measured in the latest poll, as Mr. Bush’s ratings are now 40% positive, down from a positive rating of 43%, and 58% negative, up from 56% negative” (SourceWatch, Feb 27th). What this illustrates is that the speech failed to bolster support for the Presidents’ job performance in the eyes of the public, a public that may have grown accustomed to his rhetorical tactics by his fifth State of the Union address.

Rhetorical Composition
The presidential speechwriters did a good job of structuring the State of the Union to Bush’s strengths. This President has re-written the book on public speaking, and yet this State of the Union was free of his famous fumbles. These speechwriters structured the arrangement of logical arguments in a manner that included premises from shared values, and ethos-borrowing from unquestionable sources.

Bush’s language at the outset of the speech is highly inclusive. He is speaking to the lawmakers present in the room, but also to the millions of Americans viewing at home. In the first paragraph of the speech after the introduction Bush uses the word “we” three times, noting that it has been his “honor to serve with [fellow lawmakers].” (Bush) This group identification serves as a call for all to board the launch pad for the President’s arguments.

The President “borrows” credibility from several sources in this speech. First he pays tribute in his introduction to the recently deceased Coretta Scott King, wife of civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr. Later in the speech he shares with us the narrative example of a fallen American soldier, Staff Sergeant Dan Clay, whose wife and family are present at the State of the Union. In the conclusion of his speech he evokes such American untouchables as Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and the United States during World War II. Each of these references, the civil rights leaders, the fallen soldier, Abraham Lincoln—each of them is an American “sacred cow.” As cows in the Hindu faith are precious to practitioners, these icons Bush references are beyond criticism. One would not dare argue against the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln, one of the country’s greatest Presidents, nor would one criticize (or even want to disagree with) the family of a fallen soldier. The ethics of invoking these giants of American history, especially the civil rights leaders on the eve of Coretta’s death are despicable. Speakers who take advantage of others’ well-deserved credibility are purposefully exploiting the audience’s positive perceptions.

The invention of the speech uses the Aristotilean technique of “classifying and dividing” to juxtapose arguments. The ideas he agrees with are presented first, in language connoting strength, while counter ideas are presented as weak. “We will choose to act confidently in pursuing the enemies of freedom—or retreat from our duties in the hope of an easier life. We will choose to build our prosperity by leading the world economy—or shut ourselves off from trade and opportunity.” Confidence and prosperity are the rights only of those in pursuit of enemies of freedom, and the leaders of the world economy. By equating the position of those who dissent with his foreign policy to “isolationism,” Bush deflates the argument to decrease our military presence in the Middle East. Merriam-Websters defines “isolationism” as “a policy of national isolation by abstention from alliances and other international political and economic relations.” This is an old political position that delayed the U.S. from becoming involved in World War II until Pearl Harbor, and with today’s global marketplace and America’s role in international trade this is hardly a position anyone in the U.S. is advocating today. However, by linking his opposition’s argument with an outdated weak policy, he strengthens his own.
The word “freedom” is of course heavily featured in the speech, registering seventeen times throughout. Freedom in this country at one time implied the rights to think and speak openly, and live life without religious persecution. However, when the President takes on a biblical tone, and tells us that in order to disallow “the violent to inherit the Earth” we must “fight” in foreign lands to keep “our freedom” one ponders the modern definition of the word. (Bush)

Shared assumptions are important in constructing effective persuasive arguments. They are ingrained in our consciousness, and we are powerless to refute them. One of these is the notion that the United States is on the side of “good,” and that this country will conquer “evil.” The President deploys this rhetorical weapon; “But our enemies and our friends can be certain: The United States will not retreat from the world, and we will never surrender to evil.” It is clear what the President thinks of the U.S., but how does this statement play around the world? The effect is to imply that we are the sole good, and the world must be on alert for our good intentions.

Another effective rhetorical technique is the repetition of catch phrases describing the President’s new direction for America. His plan for continued United States supremacy around the world begins to take shape about halfway through the speech. It begins with a shared assumption, that of the United States as the leader of the world, few Americans would disagree with such a notion. The plan is called “Keeping America Competitive,” and Bush starts six of the latter paragraphs of his speech with this phrase. Repetition in this case serves to reinforce a subliminal message; the President is trying to keep us competitive around the world. One has to wonder when we ceased being competitive? Another catch phrase the President employs in the speech is “a hopeful society.” These positive catch phrases gloss the message that follows, which is a potentially deceptive mechanism.

Much of the imagery of the rest of the speech is presented in triplets. It plays to Bush’s speaking ability to write for his rhythm, and his most convincing rhythmic patterns seem to outline three points on a given topic. Examples are plentiful;

•    “{1}I am confident in our plan for victory; {2} I am confident in the will of the Iraqi people; {3} I am confident in the skill and spirit of our military.”  (Bush)
•    “{1}In all these areas—from the disruption of terror networks, {2}to victory in Iraq, {3}to the spread of freedom and hope in troubled regions—we need the support of our friends and allies.”(Bush)
•    “{1}For all Americans, we must confront the rising cost of care, {2}strengthen the doctor-patient relationship, and {3}help people afford the insurance coverage they need.” (Bush)
This structure dominates the bulk of the speech, and there’s even a time when we get a triple set of triplets;
•    “Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research: {1}human cloning in all its forms, {2}creating or implanting embryos for experiments, {3}creating human-animal hybrids, and {1}buying, {2}selling, or {3}patenting human embryos. Human life is a gift from our Creator—and that gift should never be {1}discarded, {2}devalued, or {3}put up for sale.” (Bush)

Sometimes these triplets comprise enthymemes, sometimes they’re lists of examples, but the parallel structure inherent in the speech with the use of triplets throughout adds to its internal consistency. Another repeated structure is the pairing and division of ideas. Sometimes this structure is dressed in triplets, sometimes triplets are presented as juxtaposed pairs. The speech has effective structure, and the words chosen are effective as well. So why did the speech not register a change in American approval ratings of the President?

Sound Structure Failure
One potential reason for the failure of the speech is the low level of speaker credibility the President had at the time he delivered the State of the Union. The barometer by which we judge the success or failure of this speech is a poll number that, for this President was low both before and after the speech. The President’s own lack of ethos may have been exactly what a good speech could not overcome. The reasons for the President’s low approval rating were plentiful; the growing unpopularity of the war in Iraq, the corruption scandals in Washington, D.C. featuring his friends and fellow Republicans, his attempt to contract the security of New Jersey shipping ports to a Dubai—based company, and the extremely high cost of gasoline. Another reason for the potential disconnect is the trust between the President and the American public has eroded since his claims of Saddam Hussein’s proliferation of weapons of mass destruction has been shown to be false. (Drash)

The Diversion of Energy Concerns in the Short Term
The high cost of gasoline at the time was, and still is, of great concern to Americans. The President was expected to address public concerns about energy in America, and he did speak on the subject. He discussed alternative energy options (as a triplet) like “zero-emission coal-fired plants, revolutionary solar and wind technologies, and clase, safe nuclear energy.” (Bush) He espoused a plan to have a new kind of ethanol “practical and competitive within six years.” (Bush) We then received  some numbers. “Our goal,” he says is to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025. The end of the energy payoff pitch is a familiar promise to “make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past.” (Bush) This is a promise he has made at each of his State of the Union addresses;

•    2/2/05: “I urge congress to pass legislation that makes America more secure and less dependent on foreign energy.”
•    1/20/04: “…promote conservation and make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy.”
•    1/28/03: “Our third goal is to promote energy independence for our country…”
•    1/29/02: “…it must act to increase energy production at home so America is less dependent on foreign oil.” (B.A.)
Five promises in five years, with zero relief at the pump.

The solutions the President outlined in this speech are insufficient, as the ethanol goal he mentioned is six years away, yielding no immediate relief, and “most manufacturers don’t expect to deliver fuel cell vehicles in any volume until 2020 at the earliest, fuel cell vehicles will make little or no contribution to achieving the President’s 2025 target.” (Ellis) American‘s awaiting a solution to the high price of gasoline were given distant options in the future, and a five year old promise that has yielded nothing. The rhetoric employed in this section of the speech gave the illusion of discussing the issue, while concealing the fact that we were not offered anything like a real solution.

Mislabeling Iraq War Criticism
Defining the current peace movement as “isolationist” is misleading and irresponsible. It is confusing to the average American, and thus distorts our understanding of our options. President Bush in this speech makes no concession that the war in Iraq has become at the very least a public relations disaster. He sticks to his belief that Iraq is a front in the “War on Terror.” Robert Heller, Chariman of the Union for Reform Judaism Board clarifies the American public’s issues with the war; “the false intelligence claims on which the war was based and about the way in which the war has been conducted—the lack of planning for the invasion’s aftermath, the inadequate supply of flak jackets and armored vehicles for American troops, the incidents of torture of detainees in United States custody, and the slow pace that reconstruction of basic services for Iraquis has taken.” In fact, American’s confidence in the President hit an all time low after the State of the Union, while opposition to the war among the American forces who are fighting it hit 73%. (SourceWatch, Feb 27th & 28th)

The style of the speech is a familiar one. This Administration has habitually played upon the fear of the public to keep us from questioning their policies. It’s why the President began to speak of freedom in the first minute of the State of the Union speech. The public, however, rejected the “isolationist” definition tactic, as a Gallup Poll on July 28th, 2006, proclaims that “52% want all U.S. troops out of Iraq within a year, with 19% advocating immediate withdrawl.” (SourceWatch, Jul 28th)

That the war in Iraq is unjustified, and in contravention to the U.N. Charter and Article IV of the Geneva Convention is one message the public will not be hearing from the President. In his defense, no President is ever interested in taking credit for putting the country in a heinous position, but as a nation whose charge is to “lead the world” according to our President, the American voter owes it to the world community to effectively judge the message our leadership sends.

Review of Relevant Criticism
Lieberman, Ben. The Heritage Foundation, WebMemo #979, State of the Union 2006: Dusting Off the Old Energy Policy. Jan. 31st, 2006.

This critique from the conservative think tank is harsh on the President, calling his “addiction” (in terms of our dependency on foreign oil) rhetoric excessive. He charges that the Government is unable to shake the dependency on oil, his evidence is that their “research track record and the staying power of oil suggest caution in predicting the end of oil and the dawn of an age of alternative fuels.” The solution, in the minds of the folks at the Heritage Foundation, is deregulation of oil refineries in America as well as open season on Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. While I disagree with his conclusion I do appreciate Lieberman’s ability to see through Bush’s rhetorical veil on energy solutions.

Honestly, I expected different from the Heritage Foundation. I expected them to attempt to sway the reader into agreement with the President’s claims. Then again, they are a think tank; the parties and the media handle the distribution of propaganda, the think tanks just create the content for them.

Zunes, Stephen. “A Mis-Statement of the Union Address,” (Silver City, NM & Washington, D.C.: Foreign Policy In Focus, February 1, 2006).

Zunes’ critique is scathing and thorough. He provides very strong counterclaims to nearly all of the President’s statements. He is especially effective in his critique on the Iraq War rhetoric; “Recognizing that the war is probably unwinnable is not defeatism. It is realism. Aiming for an unachievable military ‘success’ is not responsible. It is a folly of tragic proportions.” The author also blasts the President’s notion of progress in the democratization of the Middle East, and his domestic spying policies. He highlights the United States history of undermining democratically elected governments in the Middle East by supporting coups against them. He also puts the phenomenon of radical Islamist terrorism in a proper context noting that it’s a monster we had a large part in creating with our mingling in the region in the 1980’s (to the tune of $5 billion) in order to oppose communist expansion into Afghanistan. (Zunes, 2) His critique is that the speech is generally an “extraordinarily simplistic formulation of a series of complex issues facing the United States and the world.”

Comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam used to be very unpopular, seemingly un-American, but they are surfacing more. Zunes derails a Vietnam-era rhetorical claim issued by the President in the State of the Union address;

“If we were to leave these vicious attackers alone, they would not leave us alone. They would simply move the battlefield to our own shores.” (Bush)

“Despite similar claims during the Vietnam War that “if we don’t fight them over there we’ll have to fight them here,” the Vietnamese fighting U.S. forces did not move the battlefield to America once U.S. troops got out of their country. The Afghans fighting Soviet forces did not move the battlefield to Russia when the Soviets got out of their country. Similarly, the Iraquis fighting U.S. forces will not move the battlefield to America once we get out of their country. (Zunes, 3)”

Conclusion
America the target market, and America the reality are evidenced to be separate and distinctive entities. A speech can be prepared with flawless logic, rock solid structure, and still fall victim to the low credibility of the speaker. This speech in particular, combines that fault with the fact that most Americans are used to the President’s mode of speaking, and can see through the smokescreen right now. Adorning your speech in ways that frighten people into agreeing with you will work for some time after the fright fades, but not forever. If rhetoric truly is the “ability to see, in all cases, the available means of persuasion” then we must all become scholars of rhetoric, so that we may ensure that those employing the available means are steering us down the right path.

Works Cited
Bush, George W. “2006.” State of the Union. Washington, D.C.: January 2006. http://www.whitehouse.gov/stateoftheunion/2006/.
Zunes, Stephen. “A Mis-Statement of the Union Address,” Foreign Policy In Focus, Silver City, NM & Washington, D.C.: February 2006.
Lieberman, Ben. State of the Union 2006: Dusting Off the Old Energy Policy. WebMemo #979. Washington, D.C.: The Heritage Foundation. January 2006.
“Bush administration approval ratings.” SourceWatch. The Center for Media and Democracy. Washington, D.C. July 2006. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title= Bush_administration_approval_ratings.
B.A., “ABC’s Gibson touts Bush’s ‘new’ call to reduce oil dependence, ignores similar calls in previous four addresses.” Media Matters for America. Washington, D.C. Media Matters Action Network. February 2006.
Ellis, Chris. “2006 State of the Union Address.” Current Policies. Jan 2006. www.hybridcars.com/2006-state-of-the-union-address.html
Heller, Robert. “Iraq.” State of the Union 2006: Reform Jewish Leaders Respond. Washington , D.C.: February 2006.
Drash, Wayne. “Report: No WMD stockpiles in Iraq.” CNN. Atlanta, G.A. October 2004. http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/06/iraq.wmd.report/

A cross-media analysis of The Wisdom of No Escape by Pema Chodron and Pink Floyd’s concert DVD “Live at Pompeii” illuminates a philosophical consonance. That Floyd drew upon Eastern influences is clearly illustrated in the musical and lyrical treatment of “Pompeii” standout “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.” Pink Floyd was exploring some of the thoughts Chodron expresses in “Wisdom”, and their interest in Eastern philosophy no doubt can be linked to their friendship with members of fellow Londoners The Beatles, who entertained their own Eastern notions about spirituality. Pema Chodron’s practice of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche’s approach to Tibetan Buddhism mirrors Roger Water’s quest for empathy in modern life. Pink Floyd reflects Eastern influences in their “Live at Pompeii” performance, where they seem to manifest several of Chodron’s metaphors. Finally we can trace the ideas of The Wisdom of No Escape throughout the rest of Floyd’s magnificent career, with some lyrical examples from “Dark Side of the Moon,” and “The Wall” to realize that Pink Floyd and Pema Chodron examine a similar relationship in wisdom and neurosis, and that a focus on the now is critical to warding off the madness that comes with age.

Roger Waters, author of much of Pink Floyd’s overall social contribution, offers his insights on Pompeii’s opening track “Echoes:” In an interview with Rolling Stone, Waters said that he was attempting to describe: “the potential that human beings have for recognizing each other’s humanity and responding to it, with empathy rather than antipathy.” (Songfacts) Exerpts of lyrics display the specific messages Waters transmitted; “Strangers passing in the street, By chance two separate glances meet, And I am you and what I see is me.” (Waters, Echoes, Meddle) This idea of empathetic concern, of caring for another person as if your experience was theres, it requires Chodron’s notions of gentleness and letting go in order to attain such empathy. Pema Chodron and Roger Waters would have an interesting exchange if they ever happened to meet. The renowned American Tibetan Monk employs a metaphor in her discourse that the Floyd and company entertained in 1971.

“Or maybe we’re living in Pompeii and all of a sudden a volcano erupts and we’re under a lot of lava.” (Chodron, 98) Chodron’s aim here is to inspire us to live as though we could be consumed with volcanic ash at any second. Director Adrian Maben, in 2003, issued a Director’s Cut of his famous live documentary showcasing the music of Pink Floyd in a venue dripping with themes of their music, the Arena at Pompeii. The film documents Floyd exploring six of their progressive rock masterpieces shortly before the band embarked on recording their mainstream explosion album “Dark Side of the Moon;” an album which carried empathy into an exploration of the root causes of Western madness, and Pink Floyd into rock and roll history.

Two songs from Pompeii speak directly to The Wisdom of No Escape. The film’s opening (and closing) track, the aforementioned “Echoes” and the Eastern meditation of “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.” The second verse of “Echoes” muses; “Cloudless every day you fall, Upon my waking eyes, Inviting and inciting me to rise, And through the window in the wall Comes streaming in on sunlight wings A million bright ambassadors of morning,” (Floyd, “Meddle.” “Echoes.”) which is a call to view the moment with an artists’ appreciation to detail and beauty, a lyric I believe Pema Chodron would enjoy weaving into a sign for the wall of the monastery. These lyrics, also sung by Pink Floyd in the large Arena that nurtured Pompeiian festivals thousands of years ago is appropriate: “Witness the man who raves at the wall, Making the shape of his question to heaven, whether the sun will fall in the evening, Will he remember the lesson of giving?” The Pompeii statement is almost a staged adaptation of the conversations found in The Wisdom of No Escape expressed from one of the tiniest and most subtle metaphors chosen by Chodron to illustrate the dilemma of human suffering. It’s as if Chodron’s philosophy had been common to these young British Architecture College dropouts.

On “Dark Side” and “The Wall” we can also find some Chodron. She enunciates what is the basic premise of Pink Floyd’s later work with: “It keeps you in a very small, introverted world that gets more claustrophobic and more and more misery-producing as you get older.” (Chodron, 70) Floyd began their exploration of this theme of a claustrophobic growth into adulthood with “Dark Side of the Moon. The album targeted the very causes of madness in human beings in modern Western civilization; money, time, paranoia, exclusive mentalities, and other mechanisms that inspire insanity. Waters focused his thematic exploration on claustrophobia and internalization in “The Wall,” the second greatest of Floyd’s contribution to the Cannon of Classic Rock.

Some lyrical expressions of Pink Floyd espouse further Chodron ideas. In “Time” from Dark Side of the Moon, Waters waxes: “So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it’s sinking. Racing around to come up behind you again. The sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death.” (Floyd, “Dark Side of the Moon.” “Time.”) Another way to express this feeling every human being encounters is “Tigers above, tigers below.” (Chodron, 25) With age we all feel more anxiety about societal pressure as we learn and grow more knowledgeable about the world. Everybody has to deal with it, and there are people killing each other because of small differences in how they deal with it. I believe Floyd and Chodron’s shared message of living in the moment as a method of combating the inevitable insecurities of life is a precious piece of advice.

In summation, Pink Floyd’s work seems to express many of the ideas of Chogyam Trungpa, Ringpoche as interpreted by Pema Chodron in The Wisdom of No Escape. It would be no surprise to learn that Pink Floyd encountered Eastern cultural thinkers like Ringpoche himself if their contemporaries, The Beatles, were dabbling in Eastern mysticism and everyone in London was trying new things in the Seventies. If Pink Floyd, and Pema Chodron can share this much common ground they can serve as a model to teach us; if a Tibetan Buddhist and a bunch of kids from London who dug the blues and synthesizers can find alternate routes to the same truth, perhaps we all can somehow as well.

Works Cited

Chodron, Pema. The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness. Shambhala Publications. Boston. 1991.

Maben, Adrian. Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii: Director’s Cut. Universal. 2003.

Floyd, Pink. Dark Side of the Moon. “Time.” Capitol.1973.

Floyd, Pink. The Wall. “Comfortably Numb.” Capitol. 1979.

Songfacts.com. http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1214. 2006.

the ocean is a dream
in the thirsty man’s sleep
he pray his Lord
his soul to keep

broken boned cellular phone
leave a message noone’s home
has the keeper lost the key?
is the sleeper dreaming me?

circles within circles within circles
mirrored spheres
polyrhythmic motion
and a happy financier

mind won’t let my body rest
a swirl of rage and ache
a soul, folded to duress
a nightmare life awake

a crust where justice left it’s waste
an empty jar of joy
the film survives a sweetened taste
a ring wrought to destroy

the lamppost leaks it’s luminence
with noblest intentions
a ghost that speaks of human sins
is lost in this dimension

our paths are skewed by those that guise
along our merry way
our truths are buried side by side
in shallow unmarked graves

Today I declare a personal paradigm shift. I hereby solemnly swear to write at least one page of new work every day. I will write about anything and everything under the sun, with a personal guarantee to stray off topic, and lack coherence. Another oath I hoist myself upon is that I will not judge what I have written.

One idea I’ve had lately is that I am a person who juggles many areas of interest. My current areas of interest include careers in creativity, music production, politics, home recording, bass guitar, Adobe InDesign, personality theory, psychology and songwriting.
A career in creativity. Sure would be nice. How does one come by such a path? How do I focus all of my creativity into one arena, and what do I focus it on? This is my current dilemma. I need a project. I need something to work on. I have a feeling something might be in the works, on the way, and assignment of some sort, but the feeling is all that happens. Might is just that. Maybe. A curse.

In terms of music production, what can I say? Where do these great multi-track ideas come from? Why can’t I be content to lay something down, and just stick with it. Fuck with it. Make it into something else if it doesn’t work. There needs to be some serious time devoted to the production of new music, from concepts to car rides. I can now demo at will and listen to my demos in the car while driving without even needing to burn a CD. The glorious iPod swoops in to make things even easier and still I have this lack of motivation. Why such a lack? Where’s the passion?