Part two -- the Irish Debaters

In short, it was a blast ---

We went to an NBA game and got them to "the mall" for some worship of capitalism...

The event was fantastic. 8 passionate speeches pro and con on a topic that has caused some ruckus on our small and bland campus. The person who started the ruckus was there, as were the college president, at least two VPs (the third big guy was really sad he couldn't be there... he'd have liked it the most) and the dean of multi-cultural affairs. My debaters did very well, showing humor and good arguments in about equal measure -- and we deftly demonstrated the reason we should have a debate team on campus.

and.. there were no riots, we had people there (despite no press releases) and some important messages were sent.

The best part of the night (other than the celebratory dinner afterward) was that the house was divided 23/22 -- demonstrating that both sides did very well, and that this is really was a controversial topic.

I suppose an equally good thing was that D2's family was there to see him speak. D2's aunt is a wonderful person who first hired me to coach debate the first year here -- and, more or less accidentally, gave me the insipiration to start the team at BNCC... I'm glad her nephew got the benefit of her hard work... as the program at her school is kaput.

As I watched D2 debate, I couldn't help remembering the talented but un-developed debater he was last May. To think that last night was the last time I'll see him debate is pretty sad. He's smart, principled and articulate. I really hope he's not done debating, but even if he is -- I think that debate has improved him such that he won't let his newly improved skills go to waste. He's going to do something amazing -- either in public or private -- and I'll be happy that I "badgered" him into joing my team...

now, all I have to do is to recruit more like him--- hmmmm, a new challenge.