The British National Debate Team’s American Tour 2001 by Michael Birshan The Team The British National Debate Team 2001 was Eleanor Winton and Michael Birshan. Eleanor graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in Law. She reached the Grand Final of both the World Debate Championships and the British & Irish Debate Championships. She was also Deputy-Convenor of the World Debate Championships in 2001, when they were hosted by the University of Glasgow. Michael graduated from Balliol College in the University of Oxford with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He won the European Debate Championships. He was also a member of the British National Debate Squad in 1999 and 2000, representing the English-Speaking Union on debate and coaching tours of Japan and Portugal. The Context The American Tour 2001 began very soon after the September 11 th attacks. Indeed, we took some of the first flights over the Atlantic when United States airspace reopened. When the world’s tourists were staying away, we embarked on an 8-week, 24-state, coast-to-coast trip. When virtually nobody in America was flying, we took 30 flights. When the Boston Globe published a list of the ten least safe airports in America, we flew through eight of them. We were in the United States during the eerie calm before the attack on Afghanistan, the start of the “War on Terror”, the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif, the liberation of Kabul, and the capture of Kandahar. We were there when the nation was blanketed with stars and stripes, when President Bush had the highest approval rating in the history of approval ratings, and when the country was in panic over anthrax. It was a true privilege to tour America so soon after the attacks on New York and Washington. With no tour in the aftermath of the assault on Pearl Harbor, this year’s tour compares probably only with those during the height of the Vietnam era in providing insight into the United States at a defining moment in its history. Acknowledgements We were shown extraordinary hospitality virtually everywhere we went by debaters, coaches, and others. We are very grateful to all of them. We must thank David Bussey, Debbie Newman, Trevor Sather, Elizabeth Virgo, and Marc Whitmore who selected us as well as the EnglishSpeaking Union, National Communication Association (NCA), and American Forensics Association for supporting the tour. We are particularly appreciative of the work done by Dr Barb Pickering of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the other members of the NCA’s Committee for International Debate and Discussion in organising the tour.
Stop 1: Boston College (Boston, Massachusetts) Our tour began in New England where our host, John Katsulas, set a standard of hospitality others would struggle to match. We were given an extensive walking tour of Boston supplemented by a harbour cruise and day at the Kennedy Presidential Library and attached museum. We were treated to exquisite meals: seafood meant the clam chowder served at the last six Presidential inaugurations and a request for a simple sandwich lunch was met by a trip to a celebrity chef’s concept restaurant where enormous sandwiches were toasted on an open fire. Boston College is a Jesuit university with a conservative student body. This made arguing for the death penalty easier than we had expected in a state without capital punishment and renowned throughout the Union for its liberal politics. An audience of 250 voted us the winners. Stop 2: Depauw University (Greencastle, Indiana) Our second stop was very different from our first. Depauw is a liberal arts college with 2000 students. Greencastle is in the middle of nowhere, a town with two restaurants (with the owner of one having shot and killed the owner of the other for having an affair with his wife). Virtually everyone at Depauw is “Greek”—that is, a member of a fraternity or sorority. Eleanor was accommodated in a plush sorority house that looked like a plantation-era mansion; I stayed in a fraternity house without a proper floor but with a bathroom full of Playboys. The highlights were Anchor Splash, a We are the Champions-style swimming pool contest but with competitors in fancy dress and a Delta Gamma sorority “formal” where entertainment included a hay ride: a night-time tour of campus, sitting on a bale of hay, pulled by a tractor. The debate saw Eleanor and me each paired with a Depauw debater, speaking on “This House believes that American exceptionalism is an empty phrase”. Stop 3: Wabash College (Crawfordsville, Indiana) Our drive to Crawfordsville included a stop at Super Wal-Mart to look at the guns on sale. On suggesting that $17 was not much to pay for a gun, I was asked “Why, what do guns cost in Britain?” Wabash College is one of two all-male universities in the United States. It is also very small and very wealthy with over $500,000 of endowment for each of its 900 students. Like Depauw, Wabash has one of the highest proportions of Greek students in America but this time Eleanor and I stayed in a bed and breakfast that was as quaint as one can imagine: the pink room for Eleanor, the blue room for me, lace everywhere, plastic baby dolls in cradles, and a white picket fence. We did have lunch at a fraternity though, where we had to walk through a guard of honour—students clicking their fingers as you walked by. The debate was, again, on ditching the death penalty but took a specifically American turn as the proposition wanted it ruled cruel and unusual punishment and therefore unconstitutional. We won the audience vote. We also taught a debating workshop by holding a British Parliamentary debate on “This House would make English the national language”.
Stop 4: Wayne State University (Detroit, Michigan) Detroit was one of the very best stops of the whole tour. The Wayne State Debate Team is a big family, into which we were quickly and warmly welcomed. Our debate was part of Wayne State’s inaugural International Week. Eleanor and I opposed the motion “This House would put women on the frontline”. Happily, we convinced both our opponents to apply for the reciprocal tour of Britain. Both were selected and we shall see them again when they arrive in February. Detroit has the largest community of Arabs outside the Middle East, so we ate in a Lebanese restaurant less than a month after September 11 th. It was very interesting: the restaurant was draped in American flags and collecting condolence signatures for the victims; all revenue the previous night had gone to relief charities. Stop 5: Bethany Lutheran College (Mankato, Minnesota) Bethany Lutheran College was the smallest university we visited with just 400 students. Before we arrived, we stopped in the largest mall in the world: the Mall of America in Minneapolis with a fairground at its the centre. Eleanor and I were separated for the debate “This House defends the missile defence system”. Much of the debate involved fighting over the lessons of September 11 th, as would occur on many occasions. It was as if the audience felt whoever could successfully claim the attacks as a point for their side simply had to win. Stop 6: Webster University (St Louis, Missouri) The Webster coaches were a husband-and-wife team, Gina and Scott Jensen, who drove us around with their two little children, Megan and Eddie. We picked pumpkins in a pumpkin patch and were toasted by strangers in a restaurant for being British and because “I love that Tony Blair”. The highlight of St Louis, though, was the Gateway Arch: an absolutely massive metal arch that commemorates St Louis’s status as the gateway to the West. We rode to the top in tiny pods, from where we had an amazing view of the arch silhouetted in the Mississippi River. Debating “the British” was sufficiently desirable that Webster had to hold trials to see who would face us. We debated the motion on women in the frontline for the second time but here it was defined as enforcing equal broadcasting time of male and female sports. We opposed and won the first vote that had been taken for several stops. Stop 7: Clarion University (Clarion, Pennsylvania) At Clarion we were taken to see Cook Forest, a particularly attractive part of a pretty state. The natural beauty did not stop the Clarion graduate assistant noting that “animals have two rights: the right to die quickly and the right to be tasty”. The debate was held in conjunction with their leadership programme and was on the motion “This House believes that leaders should speak when spoken to”. Eleanor and I were joined by a Clarion speaker for a three-on-three debate. We defined the debate on permitting federal ballot initiatives and were awarded a narrow victory by the 150-strong crowd.
Stop 8: Pennsylvania State University (State College, Pennsylvania) Penn State is an enormous university of 45,000 students in a town that solely exists to serve them. The debate was “This House believes that the United States should ratify the International Criminal Court statute”, which Eleanor and I proposed and won. Stop 9: University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Almost anything that could go wrong, did go wrong in Pittsburgh. Looking back, the stop added to the richness of the whole tour. That was not our opinion at the time. We were picked up at State College and stopped for a break on the way to Pittsburgh. When we pressed on, I fell asleep only to wake back at State College to be informed that the Pittsburgh debater had spent the last hour driving in the wrong direction only to realise his mistake when Eleanor noted that the madeyed, gently swaying hitchhiker we had passed leaving Penn State was now on the other side of the road. So, with an extra two hours added to our journey, we drove on—only for a further two hours to be added because the debater had inadequate directions to our hotel. We finally arrived at our hotel—a seedy, roadside motel that rented rooms by the hour—with ten minutes to get ready. We need not have rushed because the debaters were an hour and a half late in picking us up. So, starving, irritable, and exhausted, we grabbed a quick sandwich dinner and went to the university’s Cathedral of Leaning (an Orwellian Ministry of Truth-style tower) to debate “This House would make Columbus Day an international holiday”. Given the policy debate topic for the year was native American rights and our opponents were graduate assistants paid to research that topic, we decided not to define the motion on native American rights. We instead interpreted it as calling for American values to be imposed abroad, conceiving that as requiring the toppling of the Taliban followed by nation-building rather than just the destruction of Al-Quaida. An aggressive debate ensued as our opponents claimed no American could possibly argue anything else (despite the fact that half the Republican Party was doing exactly that). The audience were left confused, with some thinking we had avoided the debate and others thinking our opponents had. Most worrying, many did not understand why we had not simply argued that the whole world should have a day off to celebrate the discovery of America. Stop 10: University of Iowa (Iowa City, Iowa) Iowa provided the highest quality opposition we faced on the tour. The university has the longest running international debate programme in the United States and their debate team are the reigning national champions. Our debate, again on women on the frontline, was held to recognise alumni who had raised over $1 million to endow the university’s debate activities. The hardfought debate resulted in a tied vote. Stop 11: University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, Iowa) The motion on women in the frontline was proving very popular as we debated it again at the University of Northern Iowa, a campus which seemed proud of the prominently displayed statistic that “65% of University of Northern Iowa students did not drive after drinking in the past six months”. We lectured in a public-speaking class as well as doing a model debate on missile defence for a debate and argumentation class.
Stop 12: Randolph-Macon College (Ashland, Virginia) To get to Randolph-Macon College, we had to fly into Reagan National Airport. We were not allowed to leave our seats, for any reason, for the duration of the two hour flight. Our drive from Washington, DC took us past the Pentagon, where the damage was still very visible. We also went to Richmond to see St John’s Church where Patrick Henry delivered his revolutionary cry of “give me liberty or give me death”. We did two debates at Randolph-Macon. The first was yet again on women on the frontline but Eleanor and I finally had the opportunity to propose and so speak in line with our firm beliefs. We earned a resounding victory. The second was on rebuilding the World Trade Centre, with us each speaking with a Randolph-Macon debater and a faculty member. Fascinatingly, the audience were overwhelmingly in favour of resurrecting the twin towers. Stop 13: College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, Virginia) The College of William & Mary is one of America’s finest liberal arts colleges. We spoke on the International Criminal Court again and suffered our first defeat. The rest of our time was given over to extensive sightseeing as the coach, Matt Sobnosky, took us all over Virginia. We walked around colonial Williamsburg, toured the first immigrant settlement at Jamestown, and visited the world’s largest naval yard in Norfolk. We also drove past a Volkswagen “rally”—where owners of the same make of car do nothing more exciting than drive along in a line—and learned of “Soldiers of Christ”, a gun store that will engrave a Bible verse of your choosing on the barrel of your newly purchased weapon. Stop 14: Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, Kentucky) We flew into Nashville, Tennessee via Atlanta, Georgia. Before driving to Bowling Green, we insisted on seeing the “Parthenon”: a full-scale replica of the Parthenon of Athens which supposedly “symbolises Nashville’s reputation as the Athens of the South”. We also visited Lost River Cave, formerly Jesse James’s hideout and a Prohibition-era underground nightclub. On arriving at Western Kentucky University we were greeted by a tornado warning and large signs exhorting us to leave our guns at reception. Our debate was part of the university’s Communications Week. The programme also included a lecture by Dr Jim Applegate, President of the National Communication Association, which allowed us to meet him and thank him for the NCA’s support of the American Tour. The British debate was a campus phenomenon: no posters were put up because word-of-mouth was sufficient to pack the auditorium. We did a model debate in an argumentation and debate class on women in the frontline but the showpiece debate was on the International Criminal Court. The audience were extremely raucous and our opponents well and truly entered into the spirit of the occasion, leading to easily one of the best debates of the tour and standing ovations all round. Stop 15: Southwestern College (Winfield, Kansas) We were in Kansas for less than 24 hours but nevertheless gained a great insight into attitudes to the war on terrorism. The debate was “This House would put humanitarian aid before military action in the war on terrorism”. Eleanor and I proposed, expecting to lose horrendously. Instead the audience applauded almost every soundbite and booed the gung-ho “we must teach them a
lesson” rhetoric of our opponents. If you just saw the question and answer session, however, you would have thought the audience were virtually all against us. It confirmed a suspicion that whilst many people had significant disquiet about some elements of the war on terrorism, nobody felt at liberty to dissent publicly as an individual. Stop 16: Creighton University (Omaha, Nebraska) Our flight to Nebraska was via Dallas, Texas in a vibrating propeller plane. The debate was “This House would get the guns” and afforded an opportunity to meet Barb Pickering and thank her properly for taking on the immense task of organising and co-ordinating the tour. The highlight of the weekend was watching the Nebraska football team beat Oklahoma: a long-standing rivalry made even more intense this year because it was a battle between the league’s top two teams. During football games, the stadium becomes the state’s second biggest city. Stop 17: University of Oklahoma (Norman, Oklahoma) Our stop in Oklahoma was particularly interesting as we visited the very moving memorial to the Oklahoma City bombing. The attached museum had not been changed since the September attacks: as well as referring to the Oklahoma bombing as the “worst terrorist attack in US history”, it gave a unique insight into pre-September 11 th attitudes to terrorism. A map on the wall explained that whilst Europe had had 1900 terrorist incidents in the previous 10 years and the rest of the world had been similarly blighted, the United States suffered only 15. The implication was almost that whilst there were social roots for terrorism in the rest of the world, only a crazed madman like Timothy McVeigh would attack the land of the free. The debate on national missile defence was a draw and was followed by the Oklahoma speciality of chicken fried steak (a beef steak battered and fried) and singing karaoke in a redneck bar. Stop 18: University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, Arkansas) In Arkansas, the debate coach, Steve Smith, was formerly the youngest member of the Arkansas House of Representatives and served as Executive Assistant to Bill Clinton when he was Governor. The debate was that “This House believes that the war on drugs is the new Vietnam”. Eleanor and I thought it was not enough to show that the war on drugs and Vietnam were both bad and that napalm and herbicide could both be blown off course by the wind. The audience of 120 disagreed and we went down to an overwhelming defeat. Stop 19: Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio) We flew to Ohio via Chicago, Illinois. A combination of airport and our own incompetence meant we missed our connection to Ohio. In the newly security-conscious age we were flabbergasted to learn our luggage had simply flown without us. Kenyon was the only student-run debate society we visited. A raucous crowd of 200 came to hear a debate on “This House would get guns”, defined by our opponents as “we believe the gun, in the United States, between 1847 and 1912 did more to promote equality than the sword, in Europe, between 1066 and 1453”. Since it is perfectly obvious the sword was the greater equaliser, we earned a resounding audience victory and a 6–0 sweep of the celebrity adjudicators.
We also coached a workshop and lectured on British foreign policy, Singapore, the United Nations, and human rights for a Model United Nations training session. Stop 20: Marietta College (Marietta, Ohio) At Marietta, the debate was “This House would federalise the airlines”, which we won. We answered questions at a lunchtime “Pizza and Politics” seminar on British and European perceptions of September 11th. The audience were enthusiastic and well-informed, in contrast to the international politics class we lectured at afterwards. We also coached a workshop and went to West Virginia so I could colour in another state on the map. Stop 21: Lewis & Clerk College (Portland, Oregon) For the third time on our trip, we travelled to four states in one day, flying from Ohio to Illinois to Oregon and then driving to Washington state. The Pacific-Northwest is perhaps the most beautiful part of America. Seattle is stunning, with skyscrapers surrounded by snow-capped mountains overlooking the sea. We saw the fish market and ascended the Space Needle. Returning to Portland, we visited Powell’s, the world largest bookstore, and debated American exceptionalism in front of a large audience from local universities and community colleges. The next day, we judged a debate tournament at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon. Stop 22: University of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah) Salt Lake City is almost as beautiful as the Pacific-Northwest, with mountains beginning right at the city limits. We stayed in the Olympic Village, ate our best meal of the tour, breakfasted in the mountains, and saw the Mormon buildings that dominate the city-centre. We did two debates: the first was for an “Analysis of Argumentation” class on whether the war on terrorism will be won by the carrot or the stick; the second was on the International Criminal Court. We won both. Stop 23: University of Southern California (Los Angeles, California) Stop 23 was supposed to be at Irvine Valley College. Unfortunately, our host at Irvine claimed he thought the entire tour had been cancelled. Fortunately, David Damus, the USC coach stepped in and picked us up a day early putting us up in a plush hotel with instructions to enjoy ourselves. This being California, David was not a full-time faculty member but was instead a property attorney who used to be a media lawyer to the stars but quit after having to deal with one too many paternity suits on behalf of his clients. His assistant Josh was a former Levi’s model whose father was head of research and development for the largest sex toy manufacturer in the world. We narrowly lost our debate on legalising prostitution and then proceeded to have all the standard Los Angeles experiences: Rodeo Drive, the Hollywood sign, the Walk of Fame, the beach. Stop 24: Colorado State University (Fort Collins, Colorado) Our final stop gave us our largest audience and produced probably our best performance as we proposed ditching the death penalty in front of 300. Afterwards, we went to a piano bar with two pianos for pianists to compete against one another in delivering audience requests with aplomb.