Local presidential debate turns ugly. By KATY SEARS

By KATY SEARS

Date published: 10/26/2004

YOUTH CORRESPONDENT

Recently, I found myself on the edge of my seat while an adult preached at me about political issues.

Nothing could have been more entertaining.

I was at a debate between a delegate to the Democratic National Convention (Thomas Connally) and the chairman of the Fredericksburg Republican Committee (Shaun Kenney). It was being held at the downtown library.

There were 12 people under the age of 18--all from Fredericksburg Christian High School, one from Mary Washington College, but an FCHS alumni.

As the debate began, it became apparent that only one man in the room was undecided as to which party he would give his vote. It also became apparent that us teenagers were possibly the only Republicans in the room; at least, the only outspoken ones.

The president of our school's Teenage Republicans Club, Meredith Lee, brought signs to the debate, giving our support to Mr. Kenney and to our beloved president. The moderator gave a chuckle as he explained the rules, and we waved our signs. Mr. Kenney winked at us. It was all in good fun, right?

Wrong.

One of the Democratic gentlemen spoke up. "Since these teenagers obviously came prepared with signs, may we have a break to make signs of our own?"

The moderator, noting rules and time constraints, pointedly declined his request.

Said gentleman then proceeded to scrawl smart remarks, such as "Another Republican Lie" and unreadable cryptic messages, all over the back of his sign (a woman decided to rush out to her car as an act of defiance and returned with a bag of John Kerry signs. What did we do? Pulled out more George W. Bush signs, of course.)

The rest of the debate was enjoyable. Sadly, there were frequent interruptions and remarks by the Democrats in the room. For some reason, the Democrats at this debate found it hard to follow debate rules.

The moderator had to read the rules at least three more times before the disruptive Democrats got the hint.

The debate was going fine until the closing arguments came along. As Mr. Kenney tried to present his argument, he was aggressively interrupted by an angry Democrat.

Now, understand that as a very opinionated group of Republican teenagers, we had held ourselves back many times from remarking and yelling. However, we had had enough.

Date published: 10/26/2004