As Thomas Olbricht remarks in his informative autobiographical paper in this volume, the international interest in rhetorical analysis and interpretation is remarkable. A number of diligent, creative people have created a context of opportunity for us. It is my view that contexts of opportunity are also contexts of responsibility. At a time when people who embody multiple rhetorics come into our lives through our ears, our eyes, the printed materials we hold in our hands and the airplanes, trains, buses and cars that come into our cities and countryside, it is appropriate for rhetorical analysis and interpretation to become a major player in religious studies, the humanities, the social sciences and even the practical and hard sciences.

In other words, people are becoming more and more aware that the use of language is as important as the use of science for the lives of millions of people on this planet. We possess the scientific knowledge and the productive abilities to bring health and well-being to an overwhelming majority of people who inhabit the earth. People's use of words plays a central role in who benefits from our knowledge and abilities, who is put at a disadvantage, who is put to flight and who is destroyed from the face of the earth. In short, the ability to use language across this entire planet and throughout a growing part of our solar system makes us substantive co-creators of life and death. Those who have been privileged to be at the right places at the right time, to use again the words of our gracious host Thomas Olbricht, should look carefully at the opportunities we have to take positions of leadership toward constructive action in cooperation with highly different kinds of people.

The question is how we can use the resources, skills and insights that a host of hardworking people have made available to us to move