To my students

Dear students,

So far this semester, you've learned about the Greek words ethos, pathos, and logos. Today I want to teach you a new word: kairos.

Your textbook, The Wadsworth Guide to Research, claims kairos is when “you are in a situation that presents the need to communicate” (39). Look it up online and you’ll find definitions like “opportune moment.”  The murders of three people, all NCSU students or alumni, last evening have presented me with kairos I can’t ignore.

Before we began class in January, you may have wondered why English 101 matters, how it affects your life, why you are here. You may still wonder. And, honestly, attending classes after a tragedy may feel meaningless. In dark times in my own life, I’ve certainly found myself questioning the meaning of things that once seemed familiar.  

What I want to tell you today is that times like this are why we learn about rhetoric. This is why English 101 matters. Though I hope I have many more years ahead of me, I have lived long enough to see words change people, for better or for worse.

Words change not only the hearers but also the speakers. We are what we think. Craig Stephen Hicks allegedly used words of hate before this heinous crime. Did his words, both internal and external, lead to this violence? And, if so, where did the vitriol come from? Had he been exposed to hate that influenced his thoughts? All of the facts remain to be seen.

What we know for sure is that many more words will come in the days ahead. Social media, television, coffee shop conversation, academic classrooms… no space will be off limits. I implore you to use your words for good. Already I have seen vicious slander. We need not spew hate at America, the West, the East, the Middle East, Christians, atheists, Muslims, gun control advocates, gun rights activists, or anyone. We need not stoop to the level of those who perpetrate the very violence we say we abhor.  

The pen has always been and will always be mightier than the sword. Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Sojourner Truth, Winston Churchill. What did these world-changers have in common? Powerful rhetoric. It can be used for both good and evil. My hope and prayer is that you, the future world-changers (and maybe even the current ones), will use rhetoric to change yourselves and those around you for good. Use Twitter, Facebook, blogs, the Free Expression Tunnel, conversation, texts, or whatever you choose - but choose wisely.

I’ll end with this quotation, which you may have seen on your syllabus, spoken at NCSU in 2011:

“The goal of rhetoric and writing is to help us learn to live – and to live well and ethically and productively in the world.” –Andrea Lunsford, Director of Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University

Sincerely,

Meredith Dangel