I was one of the community judges for the National Forensic League conference at MHS last week, and I must admit that I was mighty impressed with the participating students. I also realized that local schools produce such talented boys and girls each year. Amazing.
As the judge for Original Oratory, semi-final round, I had the pleasure of meeting, for the first time, six high school students who had to write an original speech and recite it from memory. Their delivery must not exceed 10 minutes and 30 seconds. OO pieces usually aim to persuade the audience about controversial or topical subjects. I had no way of knowing the names of the students or the schools they represented. Each speaker was identified by a combination of letters and numbers — QD 005, VD 104 — and by the title of his or her speech.
The students talked about the importance of music education; how Barbie Doll distorts our image of what a woman should look like; the relation between fairy tales and real life; true beauty; and why water is really really really important. Trust me. These topics sounded more interesting while the kids talked about them. No one spoke beyond 10 minutes. All the speeches were compelling. There could be no ties and ranking them felt like I had to choose only one gem among a handful of finely cut diamonds. In the end, I gave the top spot to the student whose delivery was, quite possibly, flawless. There were no glitches in her delivery. She had poise and scored high in quality and use of voice. She spoke clearly. Her gestures weren’t overdone. She was persuasive. I gave her 9 out of 10 points. The runner-up scored 8.8 while the third placer received 8.5. It was that close. They were that good.
These students, moreover, weren’t competing in one event only. They were also into Extemporaneous Speaking, Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Poetry Reading, Prose Reading, etc. These kids were awesome. Their participation in such activities required discipline, hard work, determination and intelligence. The CNMI has lots of these students. What happens to them after college?
Those who return to the islands, alas, have two choices only: they can accept things as they are and get a government job, or they can advocate badly needed changes and be treated like an outcast — while being commended profusely by anonymous online commentators.
I’ve been on island for many years now and I’ve met many brilliant local teens and almost all of them, by now, have practically sold their souls to the “system” just so they can get a decent paying (that is, government) job on their island. Like other upstanding citizens in the CNMI, they are disgusted by the corruption and incompetence around them, and, in their own little way, are trying to make things somewhat better. But without annoying the powers that be. Like other political hires, they, too, assure the emperor, at least in public, that he is indeed wearing such fine clothes. As for those who went into politics, they are now spouting the same platitudes and lies they once despised and are now ignoring the festering mess they once vowed to clean up. These once promising young men and women are now mere cogs in a dysfunctional system. They are now parts of the problem they had vowed to solve.
I don’t blame them. The alternative is to remain true to one’s intellect, which means telling the truth, taking a stand, fighting the good fight and incurring the ire of powerful enemies. But that’s too hard. It won’t help you make a living, raise a family, pay your debts or provide for your own kids’ future.
Surprisingly, however, there are young and not-so-young locals who have kept the faith and are exercising their rights as free citizens to publicly denounce the abuse of power, the unrelenting ineptitude and outright thievery of their elected leaders while tirelessly advocating for real change.
There’s not a lot of them — right now I can only think of two or three such persons — but they’re still out there, still advocating for the common good.
I’m sure that they, too, once upon a time, excelled in forensic competitions.
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