Kennedy Center Honors

Think of tradition, convention, and normality. These are parts of society that allow people to bond over commonalities and provide a basis for the culture that each person exists in. Each factor of society allows people to interact on a normal, day-to-day basis, and serves as the general foundation for civility. In Edward Albee’s The Goat, each of these integral parts of society are stretched and strained by the protagonist through certain acts deemed vile by his family and peers. The performance of these deeds calls for a questioning: a questioning of whether or not these acts represent an idea greater than the act itself, and a questioning of what Albee is attempting to convey by pushing boundaries with this wayward behavior. In The Goat, Albee presents the main character Martin, who, on the surface, appears to be your everyday, average, family-man. He is a middle-aged architect that has friends, family, and success. In the early stages of the play, Albee leads the reader to believe that life in Martin’s household is that of any normal family. Initially, nothing of great importance appears to happen; just some teasing between husband and wife over ordinary things while awaiting the arrival of a family friend, Ross. However, many small things are happening that clue the reader in that something else is going on. What Albee does is simply set up this rather mundane scene for the bombshell of news that Martin is about to drop on Ross, and in turn, his family. When Martin…

there were more enduring effects such as constructing exceptional safety precautions that allows for a secure status, technological enhancements, and a larger team to prevent disasters from proceeding. The Columbia Shuttle was named after a small sloop that sailed out of Boston Harbor in 1787 and became the first American ship to circumnavigate to world. It’s name honors the famous explorer Christopher Columbus (Howell). It was the oldest shuttle in the NASA fleet lasting 22 years. Its’ first…

Honor is a human construct. It is used to evaluate one’s worth and set expectations. Reputation, notoriety, dignity, honor: these all define one’s place in society, but they are not intrinsic. In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, various characters struggle with their honor. Laertes’s honor leads him to act irrationally, Hamlet’s honor finally inspires him to act, and the patriarchal society’s idea of Ophelia’s honor destroys her. Hamlet has a complex attitude towards honor, admitting that its…

death of 7 brave crew member and leave the nation in fear. Ronald Reagan emotional speech addressing the space shuttle challenger tragedy calms the people of the nation and helps them understand that the best course of action is to move forwards and continue the space program in honor of the fallen heros. Reagan uses repetition, pathos, and Juxtaposition in order to sympathize with the American people and convince them that the right course of action is to continue Americas quest into space.…

The space shuttle disaster is one of the most devastating catastrophes, which took place on 28th of January 1986. The explosion of the vehicle started when the shuttle had some problems with its O-ring, and it wasn’t functioning the way it should work. The victims of this tragedy are five NASA Astronauts, and two mission specialists. The problem existed when the solid rocket motor failed at boosting its engine because of the O-ring which is responsible of connecting the parts of the solid rocket…

Undoubtedly, one of the most tragic moments in history was the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. On January 28th, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after liftoff , killing all 7 of the crew members onboard. There were many theories about what could have caused the explosion to occur. One report claimed that there was a certain pattern with the smoke trail indicating that the shuttle ran into a jetstream. However, freezing temperatures hardened rubber o-rings on one…

January 27th, 1967 three astronauts were put to test out the new rocket in the apollo program. Then, a catastrophic fire erupted through Apollo 1 leaving the three men in the rocket dead. After this tragic event happened, the NASA review board concluded that a stray, damaged spark began to fire in the oxygen environment leading the fire to spread quickly. This incident lead to many fixes and recommendations that were made to future rockets. NASA’s new space shuttle Challenger was launched…

On the morning of January 28, 1986, at 11:39 a.m., President Ronald Reagan sat in the Oval Office with his team of advisors putting the finishing touches on his State of the Union speech, which was slated to occur that evening (Cannon, “Challenger Disaster”). At this same moment in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the space shuttle Challenger began its launch. However, this spacecraft would never exit our atmosphere; 73 seconds after liftoff, it exploded, killing all seven passengers (“Challenger…

In front was a beautiful water fountain tribute that had a quote from John F. Kennedy that said, “For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace.” The fountain was long and beautiful, with palm trees lined up behind. The back wall curved up from left to right and over a dozen miniature water fountains popped up from the dark grey marble.…

During NASA’S heyday, Mr. Hagar moved to Florida to work at the Kennedy Space center. As a spacecraft operator, he had an important role in developing, repairing, and modifying each of the Apollo missions. Throughout his endeavors, Mr. Hagar has seen Apollo 1’s failure, helped NASA problem solve through issues,, and helped rescue the astronauts on the Apollo 13 mission. Though the highly anticipated Apollo 1 mission had been meticulously built, tested, and modified, a fatal fire caused it to be…