Dear Barack and Donald,
On the eve of the Inauguration, my imagination is really toying with the idea of what it would have been like to have coached you guys as Cross-Ex Debate partners on my high school team.
(cue: music and wavy, blurred images to take us back to the halls of BHS where a skinny kid with an Afro and a tall, white blonde guy remain after school in Room 119 for debate practice. One is reading and researching while the other is practicing speeches. They toss around ideas, question what is the best strategy to use in their upcoming weekend debate tournament in Bangs, Texas: a counterplan? maybe a kritik or two? stock issues? The discussion gets really interesting when they cannot agree on the affirmative arguments concerning China's global economic impact).
I knew from the moment I watched you in the Sixth Grade that you had "it." The impish maverick in me also knew it would be interesting to pair you as partners. You would complement each other because your demeanors were rather polar opposite.
Barry--I would have called you Barry, I'm sure--you had proven your intellect with classroom discussions on books you absorbed. Your reading list was impressive, young man. Methodical, deliberate with words, and even-keeled (remember how you ignored all of that name calling?). Yep, easy to see you in the role of Second AFF and Second NEG speaker because you would respond to attacks, line by line, with your mind. You listened well to others and considered viewpoints in your typical judicious way (I'll never forget that time you calmed down a classmate named Joe for getting too excited about the cafeteria doing away with deep fried corn dogs). Your integrity in a round would have insured that you and your partner would have been respected by your opponents and your judges. To be honest though, I would have coached you to show more emotion from time to time to really affect the debate. You appeared to some as disinterested or aloof; as a debater, animated responses from time to time would have rocked it. You were just too cautious. Knowing when to take chances could make the difference on a ballot.
Donald, easy to tell that talking and arguing were second nature. As your teacher, I acknowledge that it was refreshing to see your passion and your questioning when it came to the way things had "always been done." You simply had no fear, or at least you wanted me to believe that. (I sometimes thought you might have been masking some insecurities because your dad was pretty demanding of you). Regardless, you channeled your high energy for persuading others to follow your ways, as was evidenced when you got the fence built around the practice field in order to keep wild boars from wandering on to it at night and ruining the turf. My main coaching instruction for you would have been to see you use your power for positive change. As effective as your showmanship was, I like to hope that debate would have nurtured some empathy by forcing you to truthfully examine other points of view. Sometimes you just relied too much on tunnel vision, hearsay, and emotion. Perspective is the real power. Your affirmative or negative rebuttals would have been hugely impressive by combining your confidence with some point/counterpoint arguments supported by facts.
Trump-Obama. Power team. State Champs. National Champs.
No doubt you two would have gone your separate ways in college, probably moved on to important roles in public service or business. But CX Debate would have forever connected you because you worked on common ground with uncommon talents to defend your views.
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Writing let's me go anywhere with anything. This was my fantasy after an election season that lasted far too long. That's for another blog, I guess, but here's a preview: I say ten weeks tops when it comes to campaigning. Start September 1. Vote the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November as always and call it good.
Still, here we are just a few hours from what we have been doing for over ten score years. Let's do this. Citizenship is hard work, and you had best prepare to work diligently every election cycle because the truth should be an eternal flame, not a flickering candle.
To my President Barack Obama and my President Donald Trump, a resolution that we all must affirm: that the United States Government should peacefully transfer power tomorrow at noon, ET, and that this moment should signal a continuation of democracy in a country that has been and forever shall be free and great only when its citizens keep watch.
