With our debate season at an end, I thought I'd take a few moments to recall some of my favorite PF topics. As a judge, you have to put aside your preconceived notions and listen to the debaters. Let the teams sway you with their contentions, evidence and, logic.
My favorite topic ever, resolved, the cost of a college education outweighs the benefits. The ironic thing regarding this topic was that most of the high school debaters are on the fast track to college. You don't need to push these kids to college, it's where their next step will lead them. However, I have always felt that college is not for everyone (myself included, even though I did go and achieved my BS with honors) there are other options not everyone is college bound. Take into account the financial aid industry and it was a timely and informative topic. I loved this topic.
On balance, the rise of China is beneficial to the interest of the United States. Judging this topic was very interesting to me. I learned more about an emerging China than I ever thought I'd need to know. The most important fact I took away from this topic, there is more to the world than just the United States. There is a whole world out there, and every decision that is made by one part will affect another part at some point in time. Thousands of miles apart is not a whole lot. Not anyone. Not in the global economy, global world we live in today. The Keystone pipeline-guess who is a major player in that one? China. Oil, think China. Military, think China. Cyber "anything", think China.
Prior to, on balance, the United States Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election committee harms the election process, I didn't even know what Citizens United was. Perhaps, I need to watch more tv news. I got educated quickly on Super PACS. In this case, I went into judging with a totally open mind. I let logic play a major part in the outcome of the debate. I was sure to let the debaters know evidence and logic would play a part in my decision.
Due to the scarcity of judges, especially as the tournament winds down and teams go home, I had the honor of judging a finals Lincoln Douglas round. Being from Texas, I really enjoyed listening to the students debate, whether it is morally permissible to use deadly force as a deliberate response to repeated domestic violence. While I went into the round thinking, yeah, kill em, I left the round thinking, hmmmm, let him rot in jail.
It's been fun.
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