McIntyre-Cedano Aff

SORRY! Trying to figure out how to make it go up all neat like everyone elses but I figure this will do in the meantime:

Chapter 1 – The Tributes:  

We begin with our history

Collins writes in 2009 (-09-01. The Hunger Games pg 

Just as the town clock strikes two, the mayor steps up to the podium and begins to read. It’s the same story every year. He tells of the history of Panem, the country that rose up out of the ashes of a place that was once called North America. He lists the disasters, the droughts, the storms, the fires, the encroaching seas that swallowed up so much of the land, the brutal war for what little sustenance remained. The result was Panem, a shining Capitol ringed by thirteen districts, which brought peace and prosperity to its citizens. Then came the Dark Days, the uprising of the districts against the Capitol. Twelve were defeated, the thirteenth obliterated.
Next: The Districts
The Charter of the National Debate Tournament Article III:
Districts of a number and with boundaries established by the National Committee shall be responsible for promoting debate activities among the institutions of higher education within their geographic area; and selecting through a tournament or other process the participants in the National Tournament.
 

And Collins writes in 09
The rules of the Hunger Games are simple. In punishment for the uprising, each of the twelve districts must provide one girl and one boy, called tributes, to participate.
The twenty-four tributes will be imprisoned in a vast outdoor arena that could hold anything from a burning desert to a frozen wasteland. Over a period of several weeks, the competitors must fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins. Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch — this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy. How little chance we would stand of surviving another rebellion. Whatever words they use, the real message is clear. “Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there’s nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you. Just as we did in District Thirteen.” To make it humiliating as well as torturous, the Capitol requires us to treat the Hunger Games as a festivity, a sporting event pitting every district against the others. The last tribute alive receives a life of ease back home, and their district will be showered with prizes, largely consisting of food. All year, the Capitol will show the winning district gifts of grain and oil and even delicacies like sugar while the rest of us battle starvation. “It is both a time for repentance and a time for thanks,” intones the mayor.

Next: Our selection process ensures that those who aren’t considered “competitive” or in “first round contention” remain at a disadvantage.  They must still engage in the “death drive” of the national circuit to be in consideration for a second round, and everyone must sacrifice their budget to attend additional and more costly tournaments.  And yet, we construct the activity, our budgets, and our program justifications around this system because we cannot afford to not be chosen.  And even those of us who have programs built around AVOIDING the NDT as justification feel an obligation to participate for the good of the COMMUNITY – we must contribute our teams, our names on the slip of paper, because we fear that depriving the District of numbers will cost our neighbors their bids, and deprive their programs of sustenance. Collins in 09

 It’s time for the drawing. Effie Trinket says as she always does, “Ladies first!” and crosses to the glass ball with the girls’ names. She reaches in, digs her hand deep into the ball, and pulls out a slip of paper. The crowd draws in a collective breath and then you can hear a pin drop, and I’m feeling nauseous and so desperately hoping that it’s not me, that it’s not me, that it’s not me. Effie Trinket crosses back to the podium, smoothes the slip of paper, and reads out the name in a clear voice. And it’s not me. It’s Primrose Everdeen.   There must have been some mistake. This can’t be happening. Prim was one slip of paper in thousands! Her chances of being chosen so remote that I’d not even bothered to worry about her. Hadn’t I done everything? Taken the tesserae, refused to let her do the same? One slip. One slip in thousands. The odds had been entirely in her favor. But it hadn’t mattered. Somewhere far away, I can hear the crowd murmuring unhappily as they always do when a twelve-year-old gets chosen because no one thinks this is fair. And then I see her, the blood drained from her face, hands clenched in fists at her sides, walking with stiff, small steps up toward the stage, passing me, and I see the back of her blouse has become untucked and hangs out over her skirt. It’s this detail, the untucked blouse forming a ducktail, that brings me back to myself. “Prim!” The strangled cry comes out of my throat, and my muscles begin to move again. “Prim!” I don’t need to shove through the crowd. The other kids make way immediately allowing me a straight path to the stage. her just as she is about to mount the steps. With one sweep of my arm, I push her behind me. “I volunteer!” I gasp. “I volunteer as tribute!” There’s some confusion on the stage. District 12 hasn’t had a volunteer in decades and the protocol has become rusty.

THUS

ALANDO AND I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTES FOR REBELLION AGAINST THE CAPITOL.
 

Chapter 2:  The Games
It all comes down to coal. Collins 99. Collins, Suzanne (2009-09-01). The Hunger Games (pp. 41-42). Scholastic Press. Kindle Edition.
In school, they tell us the Capitol was built in a place once called the Rockies. … But I don’t spend much time thinking about it. Whatever the truth is, I don’t see how it will help me get food on the table.

The Game is rigged; however, we must participate.  As members of the Districts we are required to submit our names to the drawing, regardless of the resources we would have for the process, because it is how we “survive”.
Collins, Suzanne (2009-09-01). The Hunger Games (Kindle Locations 135-146). Scholastic Press. Kindle Edition. P 13 text

The reaping system is unfair, with the poor getting the worst of it. …And even though the rules were set up by the Capitol, not the districts, certainly not Madge’s family, it’s hard not to resent those who don’t have to sign up for tesserae.
 

And so, we must cannibalize our very community.  Every year before the reaping we wait for the list of first round teams to be released.  In District 8 we hope that Harvard and Dartmouth will get their first round bids so the rest of us can fight each other for a possible spot; but also hoping they don’t receive ALL of their possible bids so we can have more entries in the pool possibly giving just one more spot to earn glory – or security – through the Games. This destroys the community. This is why there are 13 teams in the JV pool.  This is why we no longer have a “REGIONAL OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS”, and why Rutgers and CUNY attend separate tournaments this weekend, despite being 20 minutes apart.

The perceived “golden standard” of debate causes psychic violence. It pits students of color, or “bubble” Distict teams, against each other where they must fight for the token spot. It also pits them against themselves where they are forced to affirm ideas that are harmful to their well-being and survival of their communities.

Wise 08 (Tim, anti-racist activist and speaker _{B.A. from Tulane University in political science., White Like Me: Reflections on Race From a Privileged Son., pg 32-36)
The reason I call this process a white one is because whites (and especially affluent ones), much more so than folks of color, have the luxury of looking at life or death issues of war, peace, famine, unemployment, or criminal justice as a game, as a mere exercise in intellectual and rhetorical banter. ….Until debate is substantially diversified, so that previously ignored voices will have a chance to be heard on their own terms, and in their own styles, little will change.} 

The compromise for the NDT to adopt the CEDA Resolution, and in exchange for CEDA to formulate policy resolutions, was intended to include more programs … but it seems simply more programs vie for the NDT.  Ultimately it has left schools with fewer resources at the periphery of our activity which marginalizes the voices of colored students and other underrepresented voices. This Treaty of Treason gave us the new laws to guarantee peace and, as our yearly reminder that the Dark Days of dwindling debate must never be repeated, it gave us the Hunger Games. You are either with us or against us in a call for a change from this modern 3/5 Compromise.

WILDERSON III 2008, FORMER MEMBER OF THE UMKHONTO WE SIZWE,[FRANK B., INCOGNEGRO: A MEMOIR OF EXILE AND APARTHEID SOUTH END PRESS, PG. 407-411]
THEMSELVES THE QUESTION, HOW CAN WE MAINTAIN THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT OF ORDER (LIBERALS AT CABRILLO USE EUPHEMISMS LIKE PEACE, HARMONY, STABILITY), WITH THE MINIMUM AMOUNT OF CHANGE, WHILE PRESENTING OURSELVES—IF BUT ONLY TO OURSELVES—AS HAVING THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE INTENTIONS.  ….THE THIRD (POSSIBLE, BUT ALWAYS UNSPOKEN) TERM OF THE DEBATE, WHITE PEOPLE ARE GUILTY OF STRUCTURING DEBATES WHICH REPRODUCE THE INSTITUTION AND THE INSTITUTION REPRODUCES AMERICA AND AMERICA IS ALWAYS AND EVERYWHERE A BAD THING—THIS TERM IS NEVER ON THE TABLE, BECAUSE THE LEVEL OF ABSTRACTION IS TOO HIGH FOR WHITE LIBERALS.  THEY’VE GOT TOO MUCH AT STAKE: THEIR FRIENDS, THEIR FAMILY, THEIR WAY OF LIFE.  LET’S KEEP IT ALL AT EYE LEVEL, WHERE WHITES CAN KEEP ON EYE ON EVERYTHING.  SO THE BLACK BODY IS INCORPORATED.  BECAUSE TO BE UNINCORPORATED IS TO SAY THAT WHAT WHITE LIBERALS FIND VALUABLE I HAVE NO USE FOR.  

And yet we participate despite knowing the outcome – despite knowing that the odds are NEVER in our favor.
Collins, Suzanne (2009-09-01). The Hunger Games (Kindle Locations 1431-1433). Scholastic Press. Kindle Edition.
The exceptions are the kids from the wealthier districts, the volunteers, the ones who have been fed and trained throughout their lives for this moment. … It’s technically against the rules to train tributes before they reach the Capitol but it happens every year. In District 12, we call them the Career Tributes, or just the Careers. And like as not, the winner will be one of them
But we are required submit ourselves to the lottery for Tribute.  And knowing this, perhaps the question is not “should we play the game”, but if we are going to – “how are we going to participate in it”?  Collins 09.
“No, when the time comes, I’m sure I’ll kill just like everybody else. I can’t go down without a fight. …Don’t you see?” “A little. Only . . . no offense, but who cares, Peeta?” I say.
WE CARE. Only we as the participants can change the way the game is played. The continued drive for first round at large bids, and the prioritization of the Final Round of the NDT, destroys the foundation of the debate.  The guiding question for choosing the topic or wording of the resolution emphasizes what the final round of the NDT will sound like and not the Novices at their first tournament, not bringing in new people, not building new programs, not retaining our programs in trouble, and not securing new funding in the economic downturn of the last few years.  Collins in 09 

To hate the boy from District 1, who also appears so vulnerable in death, seems inadequate. ….That Rue was more than a piece in their Games. And so am I.  
 

Chapter 3: The Victor
An affirmative ballot is a recognition that there is more to Debate than the NDT, than Districts, than the “post merger” history we have accepted. We volunteer in tribute because we care more for our District – for OUR REGION - than for our individual programmatic goals.  But the message must be broadcast where it will be watched. We must bring the protest to the Capitol itself.  
We do not have the conversation about the implications of how we debate because we become too focused on playing – and winning - the Game. Collins 10.
Collins, Suzanne (2010-08-24). Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) (pp. 22-23). Scholastic Press. Kindle Edition.
continues. … A nation leaning in toward its screens. Because no one has ever talked about what it’s really like in the arena before.
 

*Advancing through Districts is the only way to begin the conversation of solidarity. The Judges’ ballots are an act of dissent with this status quo of debate – the ballot is the gesture of endorsement of the revolution.  Collins 09.

Collins, Suzanne (2009). The Hunger Games (pp. 23-24). Scholastic Press. Kindle Edition.

To the everlasting credit of the people ….It is an old and rarely used gesture of our district, occasionally seen at funerals. It means thanks, it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone you love
 

Do not fear the revolution. Do not buy in to the fearmongering that the “system” will collapse.  Be prepared to light its spark. Collins 10.
Collins, Suzanne (2010-05-28). Catching Fire (The Second Book of the Hunger Games) (pp. 21-22). Scholastic Press. Kindle Edition.
“This, of course, you don’t know. You have no access to information about the mood in other districts. In several of them, however, people viewed your little trick with the berries as an act of defiance, not an act of love. …
There’s a long pause while he examines me. Then he simply says, “It is fragile, but not in the way that you suppose.”