Ms. Guarino
Debate #8
Debating at the speed of lightning
Our 3rd debate was not just any debate. It was a lighting round debate, meaning that we would have 1 minute of rout opening statement, 30 seconds for our rebuttal, and 1 minute for our closing. I was put up against Mazie and we flipped a coin to see who would choose the topic. I won the coin flip and chose the topic of legalizing marajuana. Mazie didn't want to do this one, so I thought of the next best topic which an innocent girl like Mazie would have no knowledge on and so I picked the abolishment of the death penalty. Although it was clear neither of us had great knowledge on the topic, I thought we had a pretty good and interesting debate. Mazie was for pro abolishment of he death penalty and I was against getting rid of it.
Mazie started by saying how everyone deserves a second chance which is good ethos and went on to talk about how it would still be an awful punishment. She also talked about how the death penalty for people who committed these types of crimes was an easy way out and they should have to rot in prison which I do agree with. Then it was my turn to do my opening statement. I started by talking about the petit murder in Cheshire. How the home invasion happened and how the girls were raped and burned to death while the father was beaten almost to death. I also talked about how it would save tax payer dollars. He getting rid of prisoners and having them face death for the acts that they have committed. I thought that we both had pretty strong points in our opening statement and that we were keeping it pretty interesting. Then came the rebuts. She came straight at me about how it would not be that substantial of a difference to the tax payers because it is a select few who are given the death penalty. She went on to say a bunch of other stuff but I don't really remember what it was. I rebutted the fact that all people deserve a second chance, and also talked about how if someone has the capability to kill and murder and rape, then they do not deserve the right to live. I talked about how it doesn't matter if they had all their life to re think their actions because the actions were already carried out and people were already dead or something bad enough to give the death penalty for.
Our closing statements were both good to start off, but neither of us really knew how to finish our thoughts in a smooth way. I really liked the lightning round debates. I think I liked them even better than the team debates. I was much more comfortable relying on myself for all 3 fazes of the debate and liked that I had nobody to blame but me if I did something wrong. I know I might be a biased opinion, but I'm pretty sure I won the debate by the way. I hope that we do more of these lighting round debates because they show how much people know off the top of their head, and how people can do under pressure.
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