On the Keynote Address at the 54th National Prayer Breakfast

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On the Keynote Address at the 54th National Prayer Breakfast On February 2, 2006 at the Hilton Washington Hotel, Washington, D.C. the 54th National Prayer Breakfast was held. The National Prayer Breakfast is designed to be a forum for the political, social, and business elite to assemble and build relationships. Since that first session, the whole motive and purpose was not to be a national religious meeting, but rather a time when the Congress met to support, pray, and care for the President, his family and other leaders in our nation who carry great burdens. Irish rock star Bono of the band U2, spoke at this in 2006, to a distinguished crowd of civic, political and religious leaders. He began by referencing an event that had happened earlier in the year where he had a run in with the Federal Communications Committee (FCC). He pokes fun at this mistake and questions why he of all people was chosen to speak at a prayer breakfast. “I'm certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather (Keynote Address at the 54th National Prayer Breakfast, Bono).” He uses humor effectively to lighten the mood, “Now, one of the things I love about this country is the separation of Church and State and although I have to say in inviting me here both Church and State have been separated from something else completely: their -- their mind (Keynote Address at the 54th National Prayer Breakfast, Bono).” One thing that Bono does is he uses vocalized pauses in the beginning of his speech. Vocalized pauses are filler phrases such as “um” and “er” that interrupts the smoothness of speaking and can be distracting to the audience (Sprague, 204). He also clicks his tongue or smacks his lips at the end of sentences. Both of these are very distracting habits that he has developed. Although his use of vocalized pauses detracts from his speech, his use

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