Edison Orellana29-Jan-13

Professor CottinghamRhetoric 105

Gettysburg and NowThe following paragraphs are a summary of a speech given by Carl Sagan at

Gettysburg National cemetery in 1988 on the 125th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. In his speech, Sagan discusses the defects of countries possessing nuclear weapons, increasing nationalism, and calls for action to defend against self-destruction. His main question which encompasses the theme(s) of his article is, “whether the fundamental unit of identification will expand to embrace the planet and the species, or whether we will destroy ourselves first.” Also, a recurring phrase in the passage exemplifies his theme, “…we make mistakes. We kill our own.”

He begins by speaking about the “industrialized war” in which advancing technology places a key role. Cannon balls used during the Civil War could only destroy a couple people in an immediate area, the invention of TNT could kill a few more, blockbusters developed during WWII would kill a city block, and finally the first hydrogen bombs could kill millions with a press of a button from anywhere in the world. “Everywhere on earth is a potential battlefield now.”

Sagan laments that although we have become much more technologically advanced in war, we have not become any wiser. Nuclear proliferation has ensured the potential for our self-destruction and extinction of the human species. On this, Sagan notes that of the 51,000 casualties lost in the Battle of Gettysburg, there was one civilian named Jennie Wade who was shot in her home. He then argues that in today’s technologically advanced wars “almost all the casualties will be civilians, men, women, and children.”

The rest of the speech is devoted to the “unit of identification.” Sagan argues that despite all the countries and conflicts, and all the agreements and treaties, and all the politicians and those in power, we have still not been able to solve our problem. Sagan says that we do not think far enough ahead to foresee a solution to international tension; instead we focus on the next president to solve the problems that no one before them was able to solve. We think that things will get better when they won’t, unless something is radically changed. The radical change that Sagan suggests goes back to his main question of “whether the fundamental unit of identification will expand to embrace the planet and the species, or whether we will destroy ourselves first.” Sagan says that we must expand the unit of identification to include the entire globe, otherwise everyone will face shared death. Sagan ends on a slightly uplifting and hopeful note before reiterating his main idea. He says “the real triumph of Gettysburg was not, I think, in 1863 but in 1913, when the surviving veterans… met in celebration and solemn memorial.” His call to action is to remember the fallen soldiers at the Battle of Gettysburg and use that memory to ensure that nothing so gruesome is ever repeated.