Junior Statesmen Convene in Costa Mesa : Student Debaters Tackle Controversial Issues

Matt White didn’t have the easiest assignment at the spring convention of the Junior Statesmen of America, held this weekend at the Westin South Coast Plaza Hotel in Costa Mesa.

The 16-year-old junior from St. Margaret’s High School in San Juan Capistrano--one of 700 fresh-faced, well-groomed student activists and leaders from around Southern California--argued against compulsory classroom recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in one of 16 debates on controversial topics.

White, who prefaced his argument by announcing his plans to serve as a career military officer, asked his frankly skeptical audience, “What is free about being forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance?” With surprising success, as measured by a vote of the audience after the debate, he called on his listeners to allow individual students to avoid the pledge’s “political indoctrination” and “let them experience democracy themselves.”

Position Requested

White said that he had requested the debate position after watching conservative commentator Wally George excoriate a supporter of the position on his television show.

The right to individual liberty “is a very strong belief of mine,” White said.

“It’s wrong to force a belief on anyone, so it was easy for me” to argue the position, he said.

Other debates held through the weekend gathering, entitled “America at the Crossroads,” dealt with the death penalty, nuclear deterrents, the “Star Wars” defense system, raising the drinking age, prayer in the schools, gay marriage, sanctuary for Central American refugees, youth cults, the right of public employees to strike and cameras in the courtroom.

In keeping with the 50-year-old organization’s purposes, both sides of every issue were aired in the debates, as they were in several mock trials. The two featured speakers were Wally George, in person, and State Sen. Gary K. Hart, himself a former Junior Statesman.

According to Karen Prosser, associate director of the national organization, the 2,400 boys and girls who are Junior Statesmen members at about 100 high schools in Southern California are “a real elite,” composed of “doers who are interested in politics, kids who want to make a difference.” Ideologically, she said, they are “diverse, from mostly conservative to mostly liberal.” Their best-known alumnus is Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese.

Creative Programming Urged

At a meeting of Junior Statesmen chapter presidents from many of the 56 high schools represented at the convention, Dave Green, who is running for lieutenant governor of the organization, urged the students to “use a little creativity” in their programming and organization building. Debate topics like the legalization of marijuana and prostitution, said Green, “may seem like a cheap, petty way of getting people there,” but are effective draws.

Green also reminded the presidents that another selling point for involvement with Junior Statesmen is that membership in the group is “gold in the bank for college transcripts,” noting that the organization’s outgoing governor, Marty Barash, is the latest example of a Junior Statesman headed for an Ivy League university in the fall. Prosser added that Princeton University regularly requests contact lists of participants in Junior Statesmen summer programs at Stanford University and in Washington, D.C., as well as a list of chapter presidents.