Judgement Day
I spent a great Saturday going to support my youngest as a participant in an area Speech and Debate meet. As part of the lingering cast of characters - coaches, parents, support persons I found myself volunteering to judge the varsity level Congress panels one AM session and one PM session.
During the time I witnessed high school students wrestling with some relevant ideas of stemming the occurrences of gun violence with Red Flag laws, lifting the trade embargo with Cuba, college student loan forgiveness, among others on the possible docket. They cajoled one another for affirmation or negation of the proposed resolutions, some had crafted arguments on both sides, ensuring there was a balance of position to consider. They managed time for presenting arguments, asking questions, making sure there was recognition of a diversity of speakers and participation through precedence who had priority to make sure voices around the room were heard. And after these rather convivial and sometimes quite emphatic discussions they voted each piece down.
What I found was an interesting reflection on our best and worst efforts of governance - we presented lofty ideas and debated them in civil and balanced discourse and then promptly decided to do take not action. I was struck that the exercise in inception was one of our best intentions and the culmination was our reality of not being willing to do anything beyond our marginalized self-interests.
There was not the vituperative vitriol of our current political landscape but there was the resulting inactivity or unwillingness to venture into the arena of compromised movement towards the potential of something better. What was reflected was the combative notion of all or nothing and we would apparently rather do nothing and stand in our narrow lanes of certitude than venture across our uniqueness and find what it actually is to to live in the fullness of our humanity.
I do not fault these students. They are exactly what we, their parents and our current society, have crafted in our own inabilities and comfortable selves. We chat about difficult conversations and pat ourselves on the back for recognizing some people are not us. We celebrate our differences by trying that new ethnic restaurant, traveling to that next global "hot spot", reading the latest writings of the Dalai Lama, or singing Lizzo in the car. But we find it hard to not castigate rural America for their ignorance or walk across the road and listen to that person who is trying to get into the Planned Parenthood clinic. We are anxious that our children's teachers may see the world differently than ourselves. We worry that degrees in e-gaming will make us soft.
But perhaps, hopefully, the exercise of what I observed this weekend will not only allow the students to reflect us so well; but rather, as they craft arguments on both sides of an issue they may gain insights beyond our own and figure out how to correct the mistakes we've handed them.
During the time I witnessed high school students wrestling with some relevant ideas of stemming the occurrences of gun violence with Red Flag laws, lifting the trade embargo with Cuba, college student loan forgiveness, among others on the possible docket. They cajoled one another for affirmation or negation of the proposed resolutions, some had crafted arguments on both sides, ensuring there was a balance of position to consider. They managed time for presenting arguments, asking questions, making sure there was recognition of a diversity of speakers and participation through precedence who had priority to make sure voices around the room were heard. And after these rather convivial and sometimes quite emphatic discussions they voted each piece down.
What I found was an interesting reflection on our best and worst efforts of governance - we presented lofty ideas and debated them in civil and balanced discourse and then promptly decided to do take not action. I was struck that the exercise in inception was one of our best intentions and the culmination was our reality of not being willing to do anything beyond our marginalized self-interests.
There was not the vituperative vitriol of our current political landscape but there was the resulting inactivity or unwillingness to venture into the arena of compromised movement towards the potential of something better. What was reflected was the combative notion of all or nothing and we would apparently rather do nothing and stand in our narrow lanes of certitude than venture across our uniqueness and find what it actually is to to live in the fullness of our humanity.
I do not fault these students. They are exactly what we, their parents and our current society, have crafted in our own inabilities and comfortable selves. We chat about difficult conversations and pat ourselves on the back for recognizing some people are not us. We celebrate our differences by trying that new ethnic restaurant, traveling to that next global "hot spot", reading the latest writings of the Dalai Lama, or singing Lizzo in the car. But we find it hard to not castigate rural America for their ignorance or walk across the road and listen to that person who is trying to get into the Planned Parenthood clinic. We are anxious that our children's teachers may see the world differently than ourselves. We worry that degrees in e-gaming will make us soft.
But perhaps, hopefully, the exercise of what I observed this weekend will not only allow the students to reflect us so well; but rather, as they craft arguments on both sides of an issue they may gain insights beyond our own and figure out how to correct the mistakes we've handed them.
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