I miss my family's debates over current affairs and such. I come from a family of five boys, each with their own family, and a couple of intellectual parents (I don't think that rubbed off).

We used to sit in my parent's living room or out on their lawn on a quiet Sunday afternoon and someone would ask an opinion on something -- the debate was on. I’m not sure we ever came to a consensus, but we sure got our view of the subject broadened. It was a stimulating time.

I had a high school teacher, Mr. Smithers, who seemed to unintentionally fire up a class debate. His approach was to inter the classroom and make a negative statement about a current event; the reaction from the class was instantaneous. It was never very obvious whether he believed his own arguments, but he did know what position would inflame his students. This was a high school English class not a debate class, and most of the students would not have had the least bit of interest in debate, but they were unknowingly dragged into one on a weekly basis.

My best memory is President Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The next day after President Kennedy held a press conference and told the public about his actions to blockade the Russian attempt to put missiles in Cuba, Mr. Smithers walked into the room and said something to the effect "I can’t believe President Kennedy would be stupid enough to blockade the Russians". Almost every hand in the class when up and everyone had an opinion. He would then guide the conversation, all the while pretending to be upset at the president.

I believe that debating is a healthy. It open’s our minds up to different perspectives on a subject. Sometimes we are able to change the way others see it, sometimes they our view, and often we all just come away with an understanding of how everyone sees an issue. We have to approach any debate, be it an organized one or just a discussion between two people, with the mindset to hear and understand the opposite view point.

If you get fired up about things that are going on around you, put it up for debate and see how many others agree or disagree with you. There are many forums on the Internet where you can spawn lively debates on just about any subject. One such is www.as-i-see-it.com I hope you get into the fun of debating.