For The Sake Of Argument

By Janice Peterson

I find it true for many of us on the island that we live so much in the here-and- now that we know little about each other’s past lives. Before I came to this paradise I was a college teacher of argumentation and debate and I learned quite a lot about what works and doesn’t work in the midst of discussions on dicey topics.

Unfortunately, I am often not as good at putting the rules and conventions of argument into practice as I am at offering insights from the sages through the ages to others. So please understand that I write from the position of one who is still learning, still trying to avoid looking like the wrong end of a horse when I jump into the fray on topics such as global warming, the Iraq war, storm water ordinances, and so forth.

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