America Tour 2002 Report- Richard Osborne. Stop 1; Cypress College, CA. We flew into New York on September 22nd and, after an over-night stopover, arrived into Long Beach Airport to be met by Pat Ganer, Chair of the CID’s International Debate Committee and our Tour organiser. She explained that for the first 6 days of the Tour we would be ‘acclimatising’ to the US in the company of her Cypress students. During this time we were called on to do a few debating activitiestalking to classes of students about communication, or answering their questions about Britain generally. One particularly rewarding trip was to the local Santa Anna High School to see some of the work being done there as part of the University of Southern California’s Urban Debate Programme. The organisers were particularly interested to hear about the similar work being carried out by the ESU in and around London. The majority of our time, however, was spent being shown the sights of Southern California. Over the course of the week we visited sights as diverse as Disneyland, an English theme pub (‘Ye Olde Shippe’- home of welcome pints of real beer) and the utterly breath-taking golden sands and blue sea of Laguna Beach.
Stop 2; Wabash College, Indiana. After a long early morning flight (the first of our many brief visits to Chicago O’Hare) we touched down in Indiana. The college of which we were guests was Wabash College, one of only 3 remaining all male colleges in the US (as witnessed by the student newspaper headline which greeted us – ‘Do women REALLY need the Vote?’). We were staying in a house built by the college’s founder, Caleb Mills, 173 years ago. The house was stunning (including a grand piano, dining table to seat 18 and a three-room suite each), and we were relieved that the debate itself was a great success. We were asked to oppose the motion that ‘This House Believes that an Invasion of Iraq would Cause more Problems than it would Solve’, and won convincingly. More importantly, the audience seemed highly entertained, and the faculty members were delighted with the way it had gone. It was a relief to know that we could do it!
Stop 3; Kenyon College, Ohio. After another early flight (8.05, necessitating getting up at 5) we arrived in Ohio to be met by Shannon and Jon the debate club President and Treasurer respectively. After lunch they decided to take us to our first Wal Mart in order to show us the dazzling array of guns. It was terrifying. The debate that evening, however, was one of the best of the Tour. The audience was around 500, filling the campus theatre and creating a phenomenal atmosphere. We proposed an invasion of Iraq (we’d guessed by now that it was likely to be a recurrent theme of the Tour) and managed to win over both the audience and panel of judges. At a drinks reception held afterwards it seemed that almost all of the audience members wanted to congratulate us personally, and we spent the night being bought drink after drink. The feeling that we’d gone down so well in front of the largest audience either of us had
ever encountered was very reassuring, and we regretted having to leave after just 24 hours.
Stop 4; Capital University, Ohio. This was a truly bizarre stop. We had a fantastic time, were in a great hotel and well entertained for the 3 days, but were asked to engage in no debate related activities whatsoever. Highlights of our time included a visit to a touring Rodeo, an outstanding seafood meal, a trip to the theatre to see A Streetcar Named Desire, and a visit to the homecoming American Football game. Neither Anna or I were particularly won over to American football (it seems to go on for an eternity), but got rather caught up in the life-or-death matter of whether our host’s ‘Sorority Sister’ was named Homecoming Queen. She was, and everyone around us went utterly crazy. For much of our time our hosts were Dr Stephen Coach and his wife- perhaps on of the most memorable characters of our Tour. Upon reading (and falling in love with) The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Mrs Coach had promptly changed her name to ‘Aslana Cour de Lion’, and decided that communication with her would have to be moderated through her furry lion backpack. Despite these eccentricities she was obviously a highly intelligent woman, and one of the most thoughtful and engaging individuals we came across.
Stop 5; Marietta College, Ohio. Marietta is a small college right in the rural South of Ohio, and, not to put it too bluntly, in the middle of nowhere. We spent three nights there, staying in student dorms, and were pretty much left to our own devices, which we quite enjoyed. Although lacking in the facilities of a typical teeming metropolis, Marietta had a cinema, gym and Wal Mart, plus a nice little pancake breakfast place- the ‘Busy Bee’. The debate itself, however, was a bit of a trial. Marietta had chosen the motion ‘THBT freedom of speech isn’t an absolute right’, and had put us in opposition. Prior to the debate Anna and I spent about an hour sketching out some rough thoughts on the subject, not anticipating what was about to hit us. It emerged later that the ‘professor’ (the designation is rather more nebulous in the US than in the UK) who made up half of the Marietta team was new to the college, and was looking to crush the British team to impress the attending senior members. He thus ran a prop to overturn the 1994 verdict of the Supreme Court to overturn the 1993 decision of the Missouri State Supreme Court to restrict the rights of elected judges to express political, moral, or legal opinions during their election campaigns. Added to this the audience, which had never seen a public debate before, took the usual instruction to ‘cheer when you agree, hiss when you disagree’ rather too literally, meaning by the end of the debate that Anna and I were not only utterly confused by the subject but also drenched in dribble. Despite this we managed a pretty convincing win, relying on humour to compensate for the (substantial) gaps in our knowledge of the subject.
Stop 6; Arkansas State, Arkansas. Travel to Arkansas involved another long day of travel, but after 9 hours and three flights, we were met at the airport by Carlton (the debate club president) and Christian, the Secretary. The debate, on our first night, was a little bizarre. We were asked to debate the motion that ‘This House Would out Gay Politicians’, with Anna and I proposing. The problem was that we, the audience, the faculty, the debate club officers and the rest of the English-speaking world took the ‘out’ of the motion to mean ‘expose’. The two Arkansas debaters (Chris and John), however, thought that it meant ‘throw out of office’. Unwilling to change their speeches in the light of this fact, the debate sort of fell apart, though Anna and I opted to keep it all very light hearted and the audience seemed to have a good time anyway. Over the rest of our three-day stop we were really thrown into the Arkansas experience, the highlight of which was certainly the pre-football match pep rally. The whole thing had to be seen to be believed, with a mass of baton-twirlers, fire-eaters and marching-band members creating an incredible atmosphere. By the end Anna and I had truly abandoned our English reserve and were dancing, chanting and singing along with the 500 other fans. We found it hard, however, to maintain the enthusiasm generated right the way through the actual match (The Arkansas Razorbacks vs. the Kentucky Wildcats) the following Saturday. Three and a half hours of a game that we didn’t really understand was rather difficult in the rain, but by the end we felt fully inducted into the American student experience. On the Sunday one of the hosts, Rachel, drove us up into the Ozark Mountains, and spent the afternoon with us in Eureka Springs- the autumn colours of the trees were breath taking, and the stunning scenery made perhaps one of the highlights of the trip. Stop 7; Washington University, Missouri Washington University is a very wealthy institution, as witnessed by their brand new Executive Education Centre, complete with plush hotel where we were staying. It was a wonderful hotel, and a very beautiful campus, the debate, however, was one of the worst. Due to some pretty half-hearted advertising the turnout was 11 for the debate that ‘THB the UN is the only legitimate world policeman”. In the end we lost by 5-6 from prop, but maintain it as a moral victory due t the fact that one of our opponents was the only available rabbit-sitter for the swing voter. The voter later explained that if only she had someone else to look after her rabbit on a forthcoming weekend away she would have voted for us. We reassured her that we completely understood. The next day we had a tour of St Louis. First we headed to the local AnheiserBusch factory (the original home of Budweiser beer) for a tour and tasting, which we enjoyed, follow by a trip up the St Louis Arch. Although the trips up and down the arch in a tiny, rocking capsule shared by 6 people were a bit scary (8 minutes for the struggling assent, 5 for the plummet back down), the view from the top was truly spectacular.
Stop 8; Iowa State, Iowa Despite only having one full day in Iwoa, is was certainly one of our favourite stops, with absolutely unsurpassable hospitality. After collection from the airport we were taken for lunch and an afternoon in a local Mennonite community by Paul Bellus, the team coach, which was fascinating, if the circling vultures accompanying our drive there through the woods were a little disconcerting! Dinner before the debate was fascinating, as we were wheeled out to meet significant debate-club donors and I was seated next to ‘Libby’ a charming woman who had married into the Kennedy family (Bobby was her college roommate) and is now a leading figure in the Pro-Choice movement. From my perspective, it was certainly one of the most interesting dinners of the trip. The debate itself was a good one, as we defended the death penalty against very capable opposition before an interested audience. The debate was broadcast live on public radio and was our first experience of a debate with a cross-examination element. Although Anna, with legal training behind her, must have found it a little frustrating, I found attempting to apply what I had gleaned from episodes of Perry Mason lots of fun. After the debate we headed for a local bar, where we relaxed with the squad until, at around 1.30am, Paul remembered that he’d left the Iowa State goodies purchased with us in mind locked in his office. So it was that the 12 of us were picked up in the college bus and transported across town to the local Wal-Mart, where Anna and I were invited to pick out a selection of Iowa memorabilia, which we duly did. Stop 9; Kansas City Community College, Kansas. We spent four days in Kansas, one of the longest stops of the Tour, and it was immense fun. The debate was good (against two members of faculty as there were no student debaters- a situation our visit was intended to help remedy), as we argued in favour of invading Iraq (again). Our hosts were, once again, great and filled our days there with plenty of fun trips, including one to what they claimed to be the best Barbeque Restaurant in the country (a claim subsequently disproved in Texas). On our second evening they took us to a ‘haunted house’- which was nothing like anything we’d ever known in England. The complex consisted of three massive warehouses filled with special effects, truly terrifying characters and an array of gory scenery. Amazing though it seems, it’s hard to imagine just how terrifying (and presumably, lucrative) people jumping out in costumes and shouting ‘boo’ can be if conducted in the dark. Our hosts were also kind enough to accompany us to a casinoin the light of Vegas being omitted from the Tour. We had a great time as we swiftly lost $20 each and dragged each other away. We were also wheeled out at a lunch for the College President and senior faculty in order to try and secure funding for the programme- which, happily, seemed very successful. Two fabulous aspects of the stop were our visits to ‘The Phoenix’, a local bar with a live Jazz band. We were taken there on our first night, and returned (at our request) on our last night, though I think that the two of us could happily have been deposited there for all 9 weeks of the trip!
Stop 10; Webster University, St Louis During our three days at Webster our hosts were Gina and Tom (the joint coaches of the debate squad) and their children Megan (4) and Eddy (1). After the frantic pace of the previous stops (and a quite substantial back-log of missed sleep) it was nice to spend a few days sampling such innocent pleasures as accompanying the kids to the Pumpkin Patch, driving through Elk reserves and burgers with the squad. By the end of the time we were thoroughly rested and relaxed, even if the stop didn’t do much to change my view that toddlers are little more than the socially acceptable face of domestic terrorism. The debate against the Webster team was fine- another win on yet another Iraq motion- before heading off to Chuck Berry’s burger restaurant, ‘Blueberry’, for a final all-American lunch. Stop 11; University of Western Kentucky, Kentucky. Kentucky was another 24-hour stop and once again the hospitality of our hosts left us wishing that we had some way of extending it. The morning was taken up with an interview for the local radio station followed by a live interview on the midday news of the local ABC affiliate TV channel. The interview went very well, until we were suddenly asked (live on TV) to start debating Iraq with each other. Despite the shock we gave it a good stab, or at least good enough to bring the effusive host, Chantel, to truly alarming levels of enthusiasm. The debate in the evening was one of the best, with an audience of 300 in a theatre filled to overflow with people, We were told afterwards that it was so crowded that a large number of people were sat out in the hallway listening. We managed to entertain the audience, even though Iraq was by now wearing thin, and received a standing ovation at the end. Afterwards the squad took us out, and we spent the next 3 hours answering their (seemingly endless) questions about life in the UK- it was great to see their enthusiasm! Stop 12; Southwest Texas State University, Texas. Texas was a much-anticipated stop, due to the fact that the head of Faculty there, Wayne Kramer, is a close friend of Cypress College’s Dr Gaynor, and we’d been promised a warm reception. Our frist night, Halloween, was particularly nice, as Wayne had invited many of the squad over to his house for a Texan meal of ‘Gumbo’ (a sort of chicken and sausage broth) and Tequila. As it happened, our visit coincided with the University hosting its annual inter-varsity tournament, and over 50 teams from all over the country arrived to take part, Anna and I thus got caught up in judging a round, though we felt a little lost in the American Parliamentary format. Throughout our time in Texas we had many interesting trips organised, including trips to the History of Texas Museum and to the State Capitol Building (both of which impressed upon us the massive pride which Texans have for their state). Perhaps the highlight, however, was an evening spent on the beautiful ‘river walk’ in San Antonio. In that evening we were taken (by our very generous host, Chad) to many bars (including the famous Dirty Dicks), and a visit to the Alamo by night, which was truly fascinating.
The debate at Texas was good, with a high standard of opposition and lots of interest from an audience made up entirely of around 150 debaters and their coaches. We tried to demonstrate the British use of humour and rhetoric (again, on Iraq) and it went down excellently. Stop 13; Randolph-Macon College, Virginia. Randolph-Macon was an unusual stop in that we were asked to perform public debates on both evenings of our stay. The first night we took on the college team over Iraq and in a spirited debate managed to win over the audience (many of whom had been enticed to attend by the promise of course credit). The second night was a far more humorous debate against an alumni team on the motion that ‘Democracy isn’t Working’, in which we took the opposition line. Rather encouragingly, it seemed that word of our performance the preceding night had spread, and we debated in front of a large audience whose attendance was entirely voluntarily. By day we were largely given a chance to relax, which we appreciated as we had been given a gorgeous private house on campus, and the chance to catch up on washing was invaluable. Perhaps one thing that stands out was the degree to which conversation on this stop was dominated by one subject- the Washington snipers, who had been caught 12 days earlier. Our house was only a few hundred yards from a gas station which had been the site of one of the first killings. It was quite obvious how deeply the community had been affected by the events of the preceding weeks. Stop 14; William and Mary College, Virginia. William and Mary was another one-day stop which we wished we could extend. I had looked forward to this visit since the beginning of the Tour as my grandparents happened to have stopped at the college a few years ago and had told me that it would be a really interesting stop. In the event we weren’t disappointed. William and Mary is the oldest college in the US, and is situated in the heart of ‘Colonial Williamsburg’, a faithfully preserved colonial town. Anna and I really enjoyed our visit, looking around all of the historic sites and learning more about the history of the area and its heavy involvement in the War of Independence. Unfortunately this also led to a (repetitive) series of jokes about the outcomes of various battles and ‘American’ rights which Anna and I had no clue about whatsoever- if nothing else we learned a lot about the American perception of England from the stop! The debate was rather a fiasco. Due to poor publicity it set a record lowattendance figure of 9 to watch us debate the UN, in which we defeated a very well practiced William and Mary team 9-0. Stop 15; Washington D.C. After a brief train ride from Williamsburg we arrived in Washington DC for a very keenly anticipated stop indeed. We were met at the station (by our host, Marion) and taken straight to Congress for a tour organised through the office of congresswoman Connie Morella, who had lost her seat in the mid-term elections 2
days previously. The tour, conducted by a member of her staff, was really fascinating, taking us all over the building including glimpses of both chambers. Washington was one of the few places where we stayed with a host family, and thankfully Anna and I got on very well with Marion, her husband Paul and their 11 year-old son Mark. Their house also had easy access to the centre of the city, which Anna and I made the most of. We had one completely free day during the stop and took ourselves into Washington, covering the Whitehouse, Washington Monument, and the Lincoln, Jefferson, Korean and Vietnam memorials in around 6 hours of sightseeing. We then headed into Georgetown for our first Indian meal of the trip- something we had both found ourselves craving. The debate was a really good one, as it took place in front of a group of students who had never encountered competitive debate before. As a result Anna and I found ourselves debating against each other, something which we’d been advised against doing, but seemed to come through ok (potentially due to our private bet to see which of us could pay the other the most elaborate compliment during their speech). The students were really engaged, and afterwards we took part in three discussions (all of them packed) to answer questions about cultural differences and life in the UK generally. The students seemed really interested in the perception of the US abroad following 9/11, and very fascinated by our opinions. Stop 16; California State University- Longbeach, CA. Our stop at Longbeach was really enjoyable, mainly due to the great bunch of students we met. Longbeach asked us if we’d mind staying for our one night with them in a house shared by Brendan, Dave and Tony, all Communication majors. We were more than happy to do so, and the three of them went hugely out of their way to keep us entertained. Although Longbeach has one of the most successful and wellfunded debate squads in the country (with 20 full or part-time coaches and 2 national championships titles in the past three years) we weren’t asked to debate there. This apparently was due to relatively short notice of our visit, but it was a shame that we didn’t get to face the very best that the States could offer. Instead of a debate, we were asked to address a class on political communication in Britain, and any differences from the US we’d noticed having been exposed to the Congressional campaigns. It was a very interesting class, and once again the students were very interested by our opinions. In the evening we were taken bowling (a pretty common theme of the Tour), and Anna and I struck a blow for British pride, defeating the Longbeach students accompanying us. Later that night we were told that the college had pre-booked 8 tickets for the first night showing of the newly released Eminem movie ‘8 Mile’. The boys, all massive fans of rap music, seemed to get rather more out of the experience than Anna and I, though it was quite interesting to see the way that our responses to the film differed. Stop 17; University of Southern California, CA. USC was a stop which I’ll never forget, as it was exactly what I’d thought California would be. We were staying for our two nights at the Hyatt Regency in LA, which was great, and the sun and blue sky were both utterly perfect throughout the stop. For our first morning we were driven to Malibu, and spent a wonderful hour on
Malibu beach. The weather was beautiful, the sand was golden and the sea was a perfect blue- it was the like a scene from Baywatch, which was pretty unsurprising as we were then informed that it was, in fact, filmed there. Our host for the morning, Brett, asked us whether either of us lived near beaches at home. If he has even now recovered from the horror which came across his face at my description of WestonSuper-Mare, I’d be surprised. We then met his debate partner for lunch at a gorgeous sea-food restaurant right on the beach, it was idyllic. The debate that evening was, once again, Iraq, and we went down very well before an audience of around 80. The next day was spent seeing more of LA- from Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Rodeo Drive to the chronic homelessness and poverty of downtown. LA, more than anywhere else I’ve ever encountered, is a city of the most incredible, and grotesque, contrasts. Stop 18; Mount Sacs College, CA. Mount Sacs was, refreshingly, a debate a subject other than Iraq- the merits of the International Criminal Court. Although the team had been practicing the same debate for 3 months (the US policy circuit seems to identify a certain number of topics which are debated for the entire season), we put up a good show and the audience (around 120) seemed very involved in the issue. The evening was free for whatever we wanted to do, and we both agreed that we’d love a trip to the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Accompanied by out host (Brad) we thus spent a happy hour comparing hand sizes with the rich and famous, before heading off to meet the rest of the squad at a really good French restaurant. Stop 19; Westmont College, CA. Westmont picked us up in the morning and dropped us off that same evening at our final destination in Southern California, Irvine College. Our few hours were to be occupied by an exhibition debate at a local primary school as part of the college’s Urban Debate Programme, and a debate in the evening against the Westmont team. The school debate was perhaps the most challenging of the Tour. Anna and I were tasked with opposing the motion that ‘This House prefers Dogs to Cats’. The kids, it’s fair to say, weren’t overly sympathetic to our point of view from the outset, and even Anna’s complex analysis involving the Lion King failed to win them over. Although they seemed briefly to entertain my argument that police tigers would be so much cooler than police dogs, and that Batman’s huge commercial success would have been jeopardised with ‘Dogwoman’ as his ally, we took a pretty huge defeat. The evening’s motion was supposed to be on the similarly weighty motion that ‘This House prefers Coffee to Tea’, run as a serious debate. Anna and I expressed reservations, which even the kind offer of four hours of internet time to research the health benefits of tea failed to allay. We asked if there was anything else the college would like to hear us debate; Iraq it was.
Stop 20; Irvine College, CA. Irvine was a really great stop where, once again, everyone went out of their way to keep us entertained. During our time we were taken for a day in San Diego, a night in Mexico, a pre-release viewing of Harry Potter II, and a fantastic Chinese banquet. The aspect of the stop which will really stick in our memories, however, is the debate itself. Irvine had notified us a couple of weeks previously that they wanted us to debate a comedy motion ‘This House Believes the US should Jack it all in and Re-Join the Commonwealth’ (Re-Join?). Initially, Anna and I were relieved not to be debating Iraq, but as the debate drew closer we got ever more apprehensive about whether we could sustain stand-up comedy for (in my case) 12 minutes. In the event we worked hard on our speeches and were relatively pleased with them. Unfortunately, all of the things we’d heard about the differences between the British and American sense of humour were all true, and rather bit us on the bottom that night. Although we seemed to carry about half of the audience, the rest looked pretty baffled throughout a large portion of our speeches. Though they were all awfully polite about it, it seems that as much as ever we’re two countries divided by a common Bill Clinton joke. Stop 21; Louis and Clarke College, Oregon. After a five-hour flight North, the sunny paradise of Southern California was exchanged for the soaking rain of Portland, Oregon. Other than a nice lunch with the squad when we arrived, there wasn’t too much for us to do considering the weather, and so we spent much of our time socialising with the squad, which was nice following the frantic pace of the preceding week. As it turned out, I knew a couple of the squad from the Toronto World Championships the previous January, and it was fun comparing stories. The evening debate was on the role of the UN and took place in front of a small, but very engaged audience who quizzed us for over an hour during the question-and-answer session afterwards. Stop 22; Willamette College, Oregon. Our final stop continued the theme of pouring rain but, as we were with our hosts for two days, it was agreed that we’d better attempt to get out in spite of this fact. Unfortunately, Oregon didn’t seem to have too much to offer the curious British tourist other than vineyards and stunning scenery, both of which were precluded by the weather. Thus we mainly spent our time in transit from one meal to the next, other than one very happy morning spent at a huge outlet mall as Anna and I gathered all manner of souvenirs and gifts to take home. Despite the fact that we’d purchased an extra suitcase each in the course of the Tour the combination of shopping and (by far the major culprit) gifts meant that all bags were bursting at the seams and probably very relieved that their ordeal was finally coming to an end. The last debate couldn’t have been more apt, as the two of us defended an invasion of Iraq before an audience of 200.