Faraone,+Vince

I would prefer that the speeches be slower that I can follow what they are saying and a little louder because I am slightly hard of hearing (selective hearing according to my wife) or but I really can’t hear certain frequencies.

My philosophy is simple: passion and respect. As a judge, I have my own opinion about the topics and I have learned quickly that I had to leave it at the door. I am open-minded and I really want to hear, learn and understand what the debaters are saying. I will jot down things that are said that resonate with me.

Since LD is purely philosophical, I want the debaters to convince me and to make me believe that what they are saying and that they believe it too. I am not swayed by the long the list of philosopher’s quotes, itemized statistics and how fast they can say it. Their passion comes through the inflection of their words, feelings from the heart and the fire in their eyes. Secondly, the respect comes from truly listening to their opponent. What I have observed at the tournaments, the cross examination consists of having their opponent redefine their words used; instead of asking why a particular word is important. Then, what I despise the most is when the cross examiner asks a question and interrupts the response with the next question. I would rather have the cross examiner ask one great question to make them dig deeper into their own arguments.