The rhetor, Senator Trent Lott, is making a speech about his remarks about segregation at Senator Strom Thurmond. Trent Lott is making this speech to apologize for what he said, and he is also making this speech in hopes that he will not lose his job as Speaker of the House. Lott begins his speech by saying that he repudiates the policies and views about segregation, and he stresses that segregation is wrong. Lott is using ethos to try and convince the audience that he actually is sorry for his words. He also repeats the words “let me be clear,” which helps to stress the main points of his apology speech.
Lott begins a lot of his sentences with the word “I” when talking about segregation. Lott is trying to help build his credibility by directly involving himself when he says that he knows personally what it means to talk about the harms of segregation and that he had personally seen the destruction of segregation. He further goes on to discuss how he lived through the time that segregation occurred and that he has learned from his past mistakes. Lott then once again, near the end of the apology, mentions how he had personally seen the destruction of segregation. He then begins to discuss how the government should be about giving people a real chance, and relates this to his life and his family. Lott mentions how his family was not very wealthy when he was growing up, but he earned a graduate degree and lived the American dream. He then brings his speech full circle by saying that he was not implying in any way, shape, or form that the American dream is only for some and not for all. Finally, his last sentence of the speech involves the Bible and a quote from the book of Psalm.
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