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Unjust Or Absent Reaction

Catastrophic: the effects of Hurricane Katrina were truly catastrophic. During this time of fear and confusion, America turned to the government, whose ineffective initial response aroused issues of racial and socioeconomic injustice. On September 15, 2005, President Bush spoke to the nation from the ruins of New Orleans. In his speech, the President effectively used Aristotle's appeals to ethos-credibility, logos-logic, and pathos-emotion to convey that lack of government preparation, not racial and socioeconomic inequality, was the cause of slow, inadequate government response.
To provide the reasoning behind the ineffective response, President Bush first had to establish his credibility as a just and impartial leader. In order to depict him as such, he explained his decision to provide an objective investigation of the government's ineffectual response to Hurricane Katrina (Text 4). Although the government tried to work well under such horrible circumstances, Bush stated, "every level of government was not well coordinated, and was overwhelmed in the first few days" (Text 4). Bush also promised a "thorough review of the disaster plans of every major American city" (Text 4). Nedra Pickler of The Washington Post writes "Bush further establishes his credibility by assigning both parties' members to take part in the comprehensive review of the government's faulty response." The president assembles most of his credibility by his declaration of being "responsible for the problem, and the solution" (Text 4). "His readiness to accept this responsibility supported his ability to be an effective leader" states Patrick Martin of the New York Times. Throughout his speech, President Bush was able to establish his credibility effectively.
To continue building his credibility, President Bush utilized logos, or the appeal to logic, in his reasoning to the ineffective response of the government to Hurricane Katrina. The lack of preparation on the government's...