To 2012 NFL National Tournament Debaters

Public Forum
There are a limited number of commentaries and analyses for this topic available on-line, but that should not be a major problem for you.  If your school has LD teams, they are already experienced with self-defense type topics having debated them in the Domestic Violence and Target Killing topics this past season (review my LD analyses for these topics for ideas and evidence).  They can give you important help to frame-up a moral justification for some aspects of the SYG topic you will be debating.  Otherwise, the topic is rich with good evidence (beware of biased and one-sided points of view as you conclude your research) so you should not have difficulty finding resources.  I have chosen not to provide additional resources on this topic as I don't feel it is required.  I have a feeling, this debate is not going to center on evidence.  It will be won by persuasive logic, sound reasoning and the right mix of passion.

Lincoln Douglas
Online commentaries are difficult to find and so I hope the little I have provided serves you in some capacity.  As with the PF topic, if your school has PF teams, they can help you on this topic as they have essentially debated a major contention of the harms arising from the gap between the rich and poor as related to democratic ideals (also see my commentaries on the PF topic).  Though I have never been shy about discussing alternative forms of debate, I have decided not to provide any information about theory and kritiks for this topic.  I think traditional, philosophical debate has the best shot to win this tournament  Unlike the PF topic, I think this debate will be weighed heavily on the evidence.  We shall see.

Policy Debate
This past year, I have contributed little to the discussion of this policy topic because it was well underway when I decided to start this website.  Hopefully I can provide more timely and meaningful help this coming season.  Indeed, our National qualifiers are policy debaters this year so I am very vested in what happens in policy debate at this tournament and going forward.

Best Wishes
Good luck to all.  You represent the best from across the country.  May you have a great National Tournament experience.

As I have noted before, I will continue to post material throughout the year so check back from time-to-time.  Have a great summer.  If you have any special requests, post a comment or email everydaydebate (see email info on the About... page).