"You Learn How to Fight With Your Words"

Taushawn Tinsley has the gentle manner that only really big guys seem to be able to pull off. “I was not a talkative kid when I started.” He smiles. “I was so shy that I never would have been able to have this conversation that we’re having.”

Tinsley is explaining the effect that becoming a debater has had on his life. “Once I started debating, I started talking, started having something to say. It opened me up. I learned to do research, and became more aware of the world around me.” He pauses in recollection.  “The first year I was in debate, the topic had to do with poverty, and we were supposed to develop a case. Well, I knew about poverty first-hand, and I decided to develop a case about my own life.” Another pause. “For the first time, I could hear my own voice.”

As time went on, Tinsley moved on to debate foreign policy, and in the process became more aware of the world around him. It led him to thinking about politics, and about what his role might be some day.   

Now, after years of success in debating with the Boston Debate League, he is working to get a debate team started at his college. And in the meantime, when there’s a Boston Debate League tournament filling the halls and rooms of , as there was last weekend, Taushawn Tinsley is back -- as a judge.

There were a number of former debaters in the “judge’s lounge” (aka the English High School choir room), as well as ordinary folks who saw the in the JP Patch or who volunteered through Boston Cares. The age range for judges runs from college students to retirees.

Among those judges waiting to be assigned to a particular debate were several community members from JP who came to support this activity with different backgrounds and reasons to be there. Idan Ben Arieh of South JP was a debater himself not long ago. He credits debate with giving him the confidence to speak in front of others, helping him articulate his thoughts.

Janet Barry was not a debater when she was in school, but in her work at World Education she has seen how important it is for members of a community to be able to develop an argument and articulate it.   She explained, “In our case we are arguing for projects that will help in the fight against HIV-AIDS, but it’s the same skills that people need  in order to bring about any change.”

Katie Beck was one of several law students recruited to judge; she said she is used to listening to carefully constructed arguments every day.

Cheryl Desanctis volunteered because she is a friend of one of the debate coaches, and she knows that the debates can’t go on without the volunteer judges – lots of them.

At the tournament this past weekend there were 195 students at English High in JP, and another 115 at . Because there are multiple rounds at each tournament, judges were needed for hundreds of debates; over 100 volunteers were on hand.  Each debate has one judge and two teams of two debaters.  The Boston Debate League, which sponsors all this activity, works hard to get community members to volunteer for one round of debates or more. The League is staffed with former debaters who credit that experience with teaching them research skills, giving them confidence, changing them. The League provides volunteers with food and drink and training sessions on what happens in a debate and how to be a judge (one set of scores for content, another for style).

In the debates, each of the two members of a team gives an eight-minute speech, and then is cross examined by one of the opposing debaters. After the speeches and questioning, each debater gives a five minute rebuttal, answering the opposing team’s arguments.

Actually, at the tournament this past weekend, a junior varsity debater from Excel High School, Carlos Ortiz, went “maverick;” that is, he came by himself, because his partner had to cancel due to family obligations. Going maverick is like a single tennis player playing in a doubles tournament – Carlos did both speeches, both cross examinations, and both rebuttals!  During the debates, he listened intently to his opponents, smiling and making notes whenever one of them made some argument he could question or ridicule in his cross-examination or rebuttal. What’s more, his “team” – that was Carlos – won enough of the debates to walk away with one of the tournament awards!

This year the topic was about NASA investing in space exploration in order to colonize Mars.  There was a lot of debating about whether Earth has become so fouled that we need to find another home for mankind, whether it would be better to leave such ventures to private companies, whether such a project would be more likely to cause conflict or bring about peace, and so on.

When you ask these debaters which part of the tournament they like best, the answer is almost always, “The Cross!”  What debaters mean is, “What I like best is when I get to make the other team’s argument look bad in the cross-examination.” Anton Haughton of Tech Boston’s middle-school team put it: “I like it when you ask them questions and they just stutter.” 

The middle school teams are a new initiative by the Boston Debate League. Johnny Paquero and Ariana Bishop, sixth graders from Washington Irving Middle School in Roslindale, are all for it. After two successful tournaments, they graduated from Novice Class to Junior Varsity. Johnny explained that the pleasure is in challenging people. “You learn how to fight with your words.”