How to Win a Debate
Tonight’s debate in Philadelphia is the second 2024 Presidential debate, but the first and possibly only match-up between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. We’ve seen the impact a debate can have this season after President Biden’s performance in June led to his departure from the campaign. To analyze the efficacy and impacts of debates, we asked Dr. Eric Smaw to join Engage. He is a professor of philosophy and Director of Forensics and Debate at Rollins College where he coaches the team currently ranked number one in the southeast and 12th in the nation for Ethics Bowl debating.
Remembering 9/11
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy. As a country we made a collective promise to never forget the events of September 11, 2001. That morning, Christine Mouton was getting ready for a meeting of crisis responders in Titusville. She is a certified mass casualty trainer who deployed to New Jersey in the immediate aftermath of the attack. There, she supported families whose lives were suddenly thrown into chaos. She went to the site in New York where the collapsed World Trade Center twin towers stood just days before. Mouton joins Engage to share her memories and work as a crisis responder. We also discuss how 9/11 influenced her current work as Director of UCF Victim Services.
Military Funeral in Brevard for POW
A solemn and long-overdue ceremony takes place in Brevard County today. Corporal Leo J. Barlosky is buried with full military honors at Cape Canaveral National Cemetery in Mims, more than 82 years after he died in a Japanese POW camp while serving in the Army during World War II. Originally from Audenried, a tiny rural hamlet in Pennsylvania’s coal country, Barlosky enlisted at age 23 before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was stationed in the Philippines when hostilities broke out. He was captured in 1941, after the Japanese surrounded American forces following the invasion of the Bataan Peninsula. Barlosky took part in the infamous Bataan Death March, eventually arriving at the Cabanatuan POW Camp where he eventually succumbed to disease. His body was buried in a mass grave at the site of the camp.
Three years after the war ended, efforts were made to identify and repatriate the remains of servicemen who died in both the European and Pacific theaters. Today, that journey ends for Corporal Barlosky on Florida’s Atlantic Coast. Sean Everette is the Media Relations Chief with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, a Department of Defense office dedicated to identifying and recovering servicemen and women who have died abroad. Everet joins Engage along with Dr. Greg Kupsky, a historian with the same agency, to talk about Barlosky and the events that led to his return to the United States.
