GDI Update Weeks 1-3
The Gonzaga Debate Institute high school policy debate camp featuring over 150 debaters from around the country preparing for next year’s High School policy debate topic: “Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially reduce its military and/or police presence in one or more of the following: South Korea, Japan, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Turkey.”
2010 U.S. Beard and Moustache Nationals
Here are a first draft set of selected photos from June 5′s Beard and Moustache Championships in Bend, OR. The event was hosted by Beard Team USA and featured 4 categories: Moustache, Partial Beard, Full Beard, and Freestyle.
An edited and processed version should be up by Friday.
Track 1 is Beard Lust by Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head. Track 2 is Beard Song by Sophie Madeleine.
Taryn’s 3rd birthday
Taryn is the beautiful daughter of my friends Rob and Kyla Walters. I hope to continue doing Taryn birthday photography all the way up until she is a teenager 
Perhaps a birthday slideshow of birthdays for her 16th birthday or something to that affect.
Kevin’s haircut redux
I’m preparing for my pending haircut and personal hair intervention in the next few weeks. Three years ago Kevin got his hair and beard cut for the first time in over two years at the Algers’ house in Anacortes, Washington. It’s now my turn. I have not cut my hair in about 3 years while working towards a photography project that never came to be. It’s time for my own personal hair intervention. I can’t wait.
Policy Debate photography project update
On May 15th, 2010 the Washington Debate Coalition gathered for an open entry debate tournament that featured two debates on the new topic, specific to Okinawa troop withdrawal from Japan, “Who would win in a fair fight: The Superfriends or the X-men?”, and Arizona’s SB1070 (immigration law).
There is more need, now, than ever, for people to be able to return back to intelligent civil debate and discourse and in-depth policy discussion. Over the past year the United States has been entrenched in so-called debates that largely revolved around vicious hyperbole and violent, illogical discourse. Throughout the shallow policy discussions that gripped much of the nation over the last year, a tiny subset of high school students dedicated themselves to engaged discourse, research and debates. Poverty, immigration, military practices, capitalism, racism, health care and a nearly infinite number of other topics are debated out in the high school weekend blood-sport called cross-examination debate. There was a time when the majority of high schools across the country participated in speech and debate competitions. Over the past twenty years high school speech and debate programs have been cut at an alarming rate. In the state of Washington, less than half of the schools that participated in policy debate 10 years ago continue to do so. As a former high school and college debater, a debate coach, and a photographer, this project represents a personal and public call to action. It is time to revive in-depth debate to the United States again. It is time for all people to engage in the nation’s policy debates appropriately, not just high school debaters who cannot vote yet. It is time for the nation to revive high school debate before true policy debate goes extinct.
