Rhetorical Analysis Essay Coding a Better Government

A Call for Action: From Fire-Hydrant Diggers to Makers of a Better Government
“Elections remind us not only of the rights by the responsibilities of citizenship in a democracy”- Robert Kennedy
People have always associated the term citizenship with one’s identity and right as a member of a particular social construct. With this in mind, most people missed the fact that along with these rights is the duties as members of the state. Jennifer Pahlka, a coder-activist and founder of Code for America movement, tries to redefine and correct the idea of citizenship in her speech, “Coding for a Better Government”. She stresses the role of citizens as not just mere receivers of government services but game-changers of the society. Pahlka builds her claim by citing inspirational stories she had gathered from working in the government, and successfully stirring the audience’s emotions with the use of strong and affective statements, subtle humor, and varying tone; however, often times, her logic fell short due to her lack of detailed statistical data and reputable sources.
Beginning her speech, Pahlka focused on describing her pioneered program, Code for America; the program, comprised of software geniuses, works to reboot local services and promote public service by creating simple and accessible application for people’s use. She continues by describing the success of the applications made by local developers and argues about the ways that technology can serve as a platform to engage citizens in reframing the government’s service system. Her speech gets serious as she starts discussing the government. As she expressed her belief on how the government should be like the internet: permission less, open, and generative, she bravely addressed the audience to re-evaluate and redefine their view on government, bureaucracy, and citizenship. Sharing stories about the ways the new generation try in tackling problems in the government, Pahlka was able to emphasize the citizens’ essential role in molding society and challenge the audience to step up and help in creating a better government.
Pahlka’s speech is strengthened by the inclusion of shared stories of success she has witnessed while working in Code for America. The first is about the application named Adopt-A-Hydrant. The application was made to address the problem of hydrants being uselessly buried in snow by encouraging citizens of Boston to pledge responsibility to digging the fire hydrants during winter and ensure the safety of the citizens in the area. The application aims to empower citizens’ participation to solve the problem at hand. The application was proven to be a effective, and thus, inspired others cities such as Honolulu, Seattle and Chicago to adapt the same concept. Aside from the given example, she also cited other application such as the app for searching suitable public schools and the Boston 311. Cit...