Debating Against Larry
When I was learning to play chess, I read a book that suggested everyone should play against better players in order to improve their game. But to gain confidence, one should play against someone less experienced.
While that might be true for chess, this approach doesn’t always apply to Debate.
Speech and Debate were my primary extracurricular activities in both high school and college. Like many male debaters at that time, I had an outsized ego that I brought with me into competition. I still remember poking fun at one inexperienced team because, in my opinion, they were inept. My partner and I lost that debate, almost certainly because we were incredibly obnoxious.
Though I was a good enough to attend USC on a debate scholarship, I was not quite good enough to win many national tournaments (even if I thought I should have won every single one).
I still remember a competition held in Lawrence, Kansas. My partner and I performed well enough to advance into the quarter-final round where we debated the merits of national health insurance against a team from Harvard.
The other team quoted Nelson Rockefeller (governor of New York at that time). My partner responded by noting Mr. Rockefeller was not a medical authority.
One of our opponents, speaking almost faster than I could comprehend, answered.
“We did not cite Governor Rockefeller as a medical authority,” he said, “but rather as a (pause for effect) financial expert.” The audience laughed. Sixty years later I still remember the exact words. Not surprisingly, he Harvard team went on to win the tournament.
That debater from Harvard was Laurence Tribe. He was good. Very good. In fact, he was so good that I involuntarily admired him even while my debate partner and I were being verbally skewered. I also admitted, if only to myself, that we rightfully lost that round. It might be the only high school or college debate where I believed the other team was clearly better.
Larry went on to become a professor at Harvard Law School. He recently retired, but is still well known as an outstanding constitutional law scholar. You can look him up on Wikipedia.
Appropriately, Larry was an educator for many years. He certainly gave me one of the more memorable lessons of my life.
Alan