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Posted on Sat, Jan. 10, 2009
Debaters go for chance to be KC’s best
By JOE ROBERTSON
The Kansas City Star
You’d think they’d be ready for a break.
The opening-round match for the debate duos from University Academy and Central High School in this weekend’s city championships was done.
The hour expired with their arguments knotted in the air. With exhales all around, the moment seemed to call for untangling their affirmative-case head-holds and cross-examination full nelsons. Time for packing up and moving on.
But no.
They weren’t done talking about the rights of Native Americans, the effects of storing toxic and nuclear waste on tribal lands, and whether tribal nations deserve breaks from the government to reap benefits from wind turbines and other clean energy sources.
“Why are they dumping toxic waste there?” Naomi Garth of University Academy asked her opponents.
“They’re not dumping it,” replied Reggie Roby of Central as he packed up files. “They’re storing it. But it leaks.”
They knocked around some thoughts about what the government can do, or should do.
“But they want to be independent,” Central’s Taylor Dias said of the Indian nations. “They want to be self-determining.”
In all, about 250 students from 25 high schools and middle schools in the Kansas City area are battling to be the top debaters in Debate-Kansas City’s City Championship, under way Friday and today at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
While debate helps them hone their speaking skills, gather confidence and learn the rigor of vigorous research, it has another perk, too.
“You get to learn about so much interesting stuff,” Garth said.
Some of the teams will win this weekend’s top awards. Some will go on to the national urban debate championships later this year in Chicago.
Someone might even win the national tournament’s top speaker award, as Central’s Sean Easterwood did a year ago.
But probably all of them, the debaters say, come away with a hunger to know more of what’s going on in the world.
In fact, Dias said he gets more from the work he puts into research than from the debate itself.
They need reams of research toted in accordion files and plastic tubs backing them as they hurtle into debate action that has the feel of a sports event.
They race against the clock in policy debates, rattling off as many points as they can. From their notes, they attack back with cross-examination, then try to extend their cases — not an easy game.
“We’re going in circles,” Roby said at one point, frustrated during his rebuttal.
“It was rough,” said Taylor Jackson of University Academy about the opening round. “Really rough.”
They accumulate points as teams and as individuals throughout several rounds. Judges will be ready to announce the top finishers today.
This is Debate-Kansas City’s “marquee” event, said director Gabe Cook.
“It means something if you’re the best debater at Debate-KC.”
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