Equality in Forensics April 13th Newsletter
April showers brings May flowers, Equality in Forensics brings new speech and debate tricks.
The end of the season, whether that be school or debate, is slowly being plotted on each student’s calendar. As the final push, whether it be for one more tournament win or A+ approaches, Equality in Forensics is here to help you find the energy and skills for the journey ahead!
In this newsletter, we will cover Equality in Forensic’s scrimmage results and weekly publications.
“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.”
-Dolly Parton
Weekly Scrimmages
Our 20th free scrimmage has concluded. Congratulations to Adhiyanth Ram for winning Congress and Finian Knepper for winning Extemp! And to all the LD debaters that won their rounds! Congrats to our top speaker Brogan Jones. And to Muccala & Mali for winning PF!
We will host our 21th free online scrimmage on Tuesday, April 22th at 8 pm EDT for Extemp and Congress and 8:30 pm EDT for PF and LD. This will be our last scrimmage until after May 20th! Ballots for this scrimmage are out and NSDA points are posted!
Looking ahead to the next scrimmage... Congress Bill: A Bill to Create Transparency in Nonprofit Management.
Extemp Topic Area: <TBD>.
LD Topic: March/April: Resolved: The development of Artificial General Intelligence is immoral.
PF Topic: April: The United States federal government should substantially increase its investment in domestic nuclear energy. To register, email vsahas11@gmail.com listing your name, tabroom email, and desired event and provide the same information.
Weekly Publications
Red Folder: In domestic news, read about major Republican victories in Florida, the Trump Administration's implementation of tariffs, how the influential Cody Booker is speaking out against Trump, and threats to the CHIPS Act and US tech innovation. In international news, read about the legal proceedings against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, how the CAC is globalizing local food production, the DRC cracking down on Haitian refugees, and countries refusing to cooperate with the ICC.
Blog: This week's article by Ben Barrera is up! Read about the unfortunate significance clothing plays in Speech and Debate rankings and how the community can rally around to address the issue.
"This is such an important discussion to have, as we have missed so many potential national and state champions because they were eliminated from prelims for having a suit that didn’t match, a tie with a ‘distractin’ pattern, or something as simple as open-toed shoes. It’s important to highlight these general issues, however when we look at specific cities and regions we see the real effect of these rules. Sometimes the only professional shoes Goodwill has are open-toed, and there might not be a matching suit and pants set to go with it."
-Let's Keep it Cute —Ben Barrera
Conclusion
While there might be a million different activities zooming past each of us at the speed of light, take time to remember it’s the middle of spring! Touch some grass, take time for yourself, and when you are refreshed, Equality in Forensics is here to make you shine!
Written by Charlie Hui with the help of the rest of the Equality in Forensics Team.