Under the bright Havana sun surrounded by a group of keen intellectuals and political activists and constantly engaged in important discussions I knew that I had to share my experience with the rest of my community My ten day political advocacy trip to Cuba sponsored by the Witness for Peace organization was an incredibly informative and enlightening experience especially in terms of the unique perspective and knowledge that I gained on important Cuban American affairs When I touched down from the trip my mind immediately began to consider all the options that I had to share my experience with my greater community I knew that whatever I chose to do could potentially be daunting and challenging but that with the right attitude and plan I could make whatever I chose to do work After a few days of thinking and planning I decided that the idea of hosting a Cuba U S relations debate would be the most effective way to achieve my goal I overcame the logistical and academic challenges of organizing hosting and participating in the Cuba U S Relations debate namely by finding participants for the debate writing effective debate rules and preparing myself to participate in the debate by forming a small information network of local Cuba experts involving the young democrats leadership and diplomatically communicating with all participants I found and kept participants for the debate by forming a local network of Cuba experts and ensuring polite discourse with them My first contact with an important member of the Cuban American advocacy network in the Howard County area occurred during a meeting with the leader of the Howard County Republican society and Agustin Blazquez an activist political refugee and artist During this meeting I got my first taste of the fierce and often personal political debating that would mark the road to the official debate During our dinner and conversation I made sure to always stay calm receptive while firmly defending and explaining my views to both the HC republican leader and Mr Blazquez Additionally due to my open mindedness I was able to see that even though I did not necessarily agree with all of Mr Blazquez s opinions that he was certainly well versed in the field of Cuban American relations I therefore decided to contact him again when I and the Young Democrats were deciding upon members of the debate After a bit of back and forth dialogue with Mr Blazquez I got his full response which among many other things included calling me a useful fool s stating that I am also concerned that you seem to be closed to any information that is contrary to what you have been given and seen first hand on your 10 day visit I don t know how you can justify that your conclusions are more valid that those of people who live there or have studied conditions there professionally for decades Although I was of course initially highly offended and to this day still do take a bit more than slight offense from his allegations especially those charging me with close mindedness which I find highly ironic Even though I was very tempted to respond with similarly critical or harsh words I instead sent a polite and thankful email back and kept cordial relations Because of my diplomatic communication in this instance Mr Blazquez later helped me find a replacement for his debate that ended up fitting in with our program perfectly well If I had cut off connections in that moment of anger I might not have been able to continue on with the debate at all The replacement speaker Mr Calzon that Mr Blazquez sent us seemed upon initial interactions more moderate and reasonable and we eagerly invited him to participate in the debate However Mr Calzon as we soon found out was not without his own eccentricities and difficulties in managing As I and the Young Democrats began to approach the date of the debate we started to work in creating the formal rules of the debate One of the debate rules created involved a starting proposal for the debate that the audience would vote on in the beginning and then after The starting motion was The United States should continue to normalize economic and political relations with Cuba to which participants could vote yes or no Although I and the Young Democrats board thought this was a perfectly fair motion as soon as Mr Calzon was informed of the proposal he expressed serious concerns He claimed the wording of the question specifically that it was not in the form of a question and how the motion did not take into account future repercussions of policy was too biased to be presented to the audience Of course the way in which he communicated this desire was rather brash mildly passive aggressive and overall quite demanding and rude He also felt the necessity of going on a rather long monologue about his political views on the phone when we were simply trying to clear up a matter of semantics for the debate he acted in a quite heavy handed manner that took me quite by surprise Again during the interaction with Mr Calzon I could have been responded to his demands in the same way he asked them in an impolite authoritative and heavy handed way However I and the Young Democrats leadership remained calm treated him with respect and diplomatically arranged a solution to his concerns Again by using diplomatic language and techniques such as ensuring open and effective communication quick call back times and involvement of all parties I was able to maintain a professional relationship with Mr Calzon that served to be very useful for the debate and beyond Throughout the entire experience of planning the debate the need for diplomatic language and communication became highly evident Even in the face of antagonism respectful and well thought out words were the only true weapons of choice if I wanted to keep options open in the short and long run Indeed even during the debate when diametrically opposed views clashed and harsh words were exchanged I still found that maintaining a calm respectful manner despite the advertised represented the best technique Alienate no one but stand your ground this is truly what I have learned from my Cuba debate