O'Gorman's Hartzell, Vermillion's Miller and Gutzman Score Big at Speech Nats

An eager reader sends an update on the National Speech Tournament, which took place last week in Birmingham, Alabama. Sponsored by the National Forensic League, Nationals brings together thousands of sharp-dressed, sharp-tongued young people for a full week of civil discourse and fine performances.

Some South Dakota highlights:

• Sioux Falls O'Gorman senior Whitney Hartzell made finals (after 12 rounds of competition!) and placed 6th in Humor.
• Vermillion juniors Sam Miller and Tyler Gutzman placed 10th in policy debate. They made it to Round 12 before being knocked out, on a 2-1 decision, by last year's champs from Colleyville Heritage HS, Texas. Miller also won the 7th place speaker award for policy debate. They'll be back. (But Sam, don't think I won't vote you down again if you bring me another whacky faux-oratory! ;-) )
• All four of South Dakota's policy debate teams were among the 69 teams that broke out of prelims (out of 201 teams entered). Brookings debaters Matt Aadland and James Kerr made it to Round 10. Aberdeen debaters Michael Holkesvik and Colter Heirigs made Round 9. Yankton debaters Mallory Schulte and Emily Bosch made Round 8.

Full unofficial results are available from the NFL. Kudos to all South Dakota speakers!

Speech sidenote: NFL veteran and former O'Gorman interp standout Morgan Peck won the Miss South Dakota crown over the weekend! See? High school speech activities teach you to keep your poise, even at the sight of Shawn Cable dressed up as an elf (or a confused Vulcan?).

Christian Science Monitor Replacing Print with Web

An icon of South Dakota high school speech activities is about to undergo a landmark change: The Christian Science Monitor, which turns 100 on November 25, has announced it will become the first national newspaper to shift from print to Web. In April 2009, CSM will end its daily print edition, produce daily e-mail and weekly print editions, and focus on expanding its online content. (No word on whether the Webification of the monitor will also sound the death knell for the really bland editorial cartoons.)

Editor-in-chief Mary Trammell sees CSM's enhanced online presence as key to continuing the pursuit of founder Mary Baker Eddy's vision of "journalism that seeks to bless humanity, not injure, and that shines light on the world's challenges in an effort to seek solutions."

Not a bad standard to live up to. "Injure no man, but bless all mankind"—remind me of that when I get cranky. Maybe remind the supporters of Initiated Measure 11 of that as well, as they try to win votes by waging personal attacks on Tiffany Campbell (remind me again—who are the Christians in the room?).

Going online offers some obvious business advantages:

• Instead of waiting for the mail five days a week, readers can get updates 24/7.
• CSM can reach a bigger audience with less investment.
• Websites are cheaper than printing presses.

Don't I know it! Just today 300 of you have stopped by to read what I have to say, and it's cost me nothing more than a little typing on a $600 machine that I've gotten good use out of almost every day for over two years. If I had to crank out photocopies and deliver them to all of your houses every day, well, obviously, the Madville Times wouldn't exist.

Oh, what's the connection between the Christian Science Monitor and South Dakota speech activities? Well, for years, a donor from Brookings has paid for CSM subscriptions for every high school in the state with an active National Forensic League chapter. I have thus heard hundreds of extemp speeches backed up with evidence from the trusty Monitor. I have also seen kids loading the buses with big plastic tubs stuffed with expertly organized folders stuffed with CSM articles on everything from the Albanian economy to Zoloft.

As the Christian Science Monitor goes electronic, perhaps we will see those hulking extemp tubs replaced with iPhones downloading the latest CSM right at the tournament. The novi can only hope. ;-)