Tobacco Debate

Overall, I think our team did very well. We worked well together, got together outside of class, and during the debate, we all contributed to the discussions and the rebuttals. I believe our team felt strongly about the subject, as did the other team. We decided as a team to dress formally, which we did. There were black pants and ties seen among our entire group. We also made a point to use credible sources. We used reliable sources, like the American Lung Association, Cancer.gov, and even the Scholastica site itself. Our group was very well rounded and thoroughly covered lots of ground.

Although I feel our group did very well, I also believe the opposing group did well also. They had strong points and always had ways to contradict our points. I do believe that many of their points and arguments were opinions though. One opinion that was stated was about the littering, which in no way could be proven true because the policy has not yet been put into effect. The point about taxed when back and forth saying the smokers would quit smoking and that they would never quit. Confusing. They also had an interesting study about the smokers on the airplane, but the study ended more than fifteen years ago. Many studies and health facts have been discovered proving the airplane study inaccurate. I also though they directed attention away from out points, to unrelated things. The study about car emissions has nothing to do with smoking, and when confronted about the second hand smoke, the only arguments they had to counter that was the plane study and they asked if our sources were reliable. Of course the American Lung Association knows the effects of second hand smoke! Although I though that these and many of the other points stated where opinions and unrelated, they other team had a come back to each of our points.

Both of the teams brought good and interesting facts to the table. It was great to see such strong beliefs on each side, but I am still a firm believer in the no tobacco policy coming to St. Scholastica, and that's just it, it was a great debate, but the policy is still going to be starting January 1st.