Summary of George Will essay: Let Us... No give It a Rest

Summary: “Let Us…? No, Give It A Rest.”

On January 22, 2001 George F. Will wrote a political article for News weekly called, “Let Us…? No, Give It A Rest.” In this article Will discusses the history of the Inaugural address and how they reflect the changes our country has made throughout the many years and presidential parties. He identifies numerous differences or changes in the sentence structure and the number of words used, topics discussed, and even the tone that is used by the President’s. He points out first the 43rd president, George W. Bush. The second sentence of his inaugural speech contained 87 words. “On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with the fondest predilection and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years_--a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time.”
Will goes on to ask what would happen if a president delivered a speech like that today. The audience would quickly become confused, bored and restless. He concludes the path of distinguished communication through speech and writing has declined since 1789. He explains there were no televisions for world to watch the address but simply an audience in the room who had no difficulty following his words. This is because they learned complex structures and well formed sentences from very different reading materials than us today. They grew up on material such as King James Version of the Bible and Thomas Cranmer’s book of Common Prayer and John Bunyan’s “Pilgrims Progress”. There mentality, as he suggests unlike ours, “Has not gone flaccid from a steady diet of advertising, situation-comedy repartee and “see Spot run” journalese.” Will identifies economists Herbert Stein who was been in the field for 60 years and is a specialist in America’s culture. Stein concluded that the Inaugural Addresses starting with Washington on through Buchanan had an average word count per sentence of 44. These words continue to decline, with Lincoln through Wilson at 34; and since then, an average of 25. George F. Will argues one address stands above the rest and you are not Patriotic if his words do not move you. The most articulate sentence in this speech however is only 4 words in length, “And the war came.” Will believes “The general shortening of sentences reflects, in part, a change in the nature of Inaugural Addresses.” Economists Stein concludes that starting with Woodrow Wilson presidency changed and began to strongly encourage and urge Americans to change their behavior. He indicates Wilson chose the wrong profession and “should have been a fierce Presbyterian divine.“ Will refers to Teddy Roosevelt who called the Presidency a “bully pulpit.” Others addresses who try and encourage Americans behavior use phrases such as “The only thing we fear…” “Ask not…” Also the famous phrase used by Kennedy 16 times and Nixon 22 times in their addresses simply stating, “Let Us…” the context meaning, get it together Americans.
Will then again examines Washington’s first Inaugural address concluding “He expressed remarkable modesty, all things considered…The presidents pride, dignity, reserve and aura of command were not only universally admired; they were towering political facts…” He was the first and only President to receive all electoral votes and whose third sentence of his address, was 69 words of the reminiscent of Ernest Hemingway. Will explains that there was a time when this language was not extreme and was necessary when we changed from a monarchy and executed power to a presidential office.

Works Citied

Will, George F. “Let Us…? No Give It A Rest.” News Week. 22 January 2005. 64. Print