Christopher Columbus should not be honored with a holiday in his name.

Hey my name is varsity LD recently i have lost a tourney, so im using this deabte to practice the basics which i have lost touch with, so excuse me if my debates are overly simple. OK so now to begin. Ladies and gentelman, I Varsiy LD will be arguing the Negative for this debate. Rather than concentrating on definitions, this debate will rather concentrate on the purpose of Columbus Day, and why it is important to the nation that celebrates it. The United States. My first contention is that Columbus day isn't celebrating christopher columbus, but rather his achievments Making knowledge of the Americas known, Finding a land for Spain to colonize, and Ultimately paving the way for the U.S to exist are some of the reasons he is celebrated. Allow me to explain this through a quick world history lesson. Basically in an atempt to find a direct trade route to Asia to commence the race of Imperialism Columbus ran into the New World, and helped begin the inevetible colonization of the Americas. After a Number of years Britan jumped on the colonial wagon. Later their colony rebelled creating the U.S. So in a sense the U.S owes it's existance to Columbus. Since if this process were to have happened in the 1990's than in the 1400's the U.S would have never rebelled since technological advancements would have solved all the problems that led them to. Thus, every Columbus Day U.S citizens celebrate the ACHIEVMENT that has allowed thier fair nation to be a reality. My Second Contention is that the Affirmation isn't fairly portraying Columbus. Ladies and Gentelmen, if you are told that there once existed a man who held slaves until their dying days, has had an affair with a one of his female slaves pocreating childnren all of whome worked for him until his death, and druing his life he claimed that none of these children belonged to him. Would you think he was a bad man for cheating on his family, and making his family fortune of the backs of hundreds of others. For working people to death just because of the color of their skin. Now what if i told you we celebrate what this man has done for our country every fourth of July, and that his name was Thomas Jefferson. I hope that this example has helped the reader see that if one only shows the negative side of someone, then the person will be seen by the public as negative. On the Contrary if you only portray the positive side of someone then they will be revered, so i beleive for this debate to be judged fairly the judge must understand both things that the Negative has mentioned so far. That Cristopher Columbus was not all bad, and that it is his positive acheivments that are celebrated rather than the man himself. So in order for the Affirmation to win this debate he must prove that the negative acheivments outweigh the positive acheivments in the eyes of Modern America, and prove that by celabrating christopher colubus's acheivments we are in fact celebrating his negative qualities, rather than his posotive acheivments My third contention is that actions such as slavery were acepted at the time, and according to Spanish Monarchy during the 1400's Native Americans were not deemed people, so in essence he wasn't doing anything wrong in the eyes of his time period. What my opponent is doing is using modern philosophies to interpert the past. For example in the future people may say we shouldn't celebrate martin Luther king because he ate animals, and in the future eating animals may be seen as morally wrong. What Columbus did in his time period is no different than Mc Donalds selling burgeres that have been proving to cause death causing disease to people, or cigarette companies selling cigarettes, or even people driving cars causing global warming. To add on to my earlier point at the time Native Americans were not deemed as people as immoral as it may sound it is no different than people mistreating animals simply because they are animals. Since my opponent is insinuating that Columbus day shouldn't be celebrated since christopher columbus held slaves, the he is suggesting that noone who has ever held a slave, or mistreated another culture should be celebrated. This means every single American hero who is responsible for the deaths of innocence, or who perpetuated slavery shouldnt be celebrated. Including Franklin roosevelt who dropped the A bomb, Lincoln who said "if he could save the union without releasing a single slave he would" Andrew Jackson who sent the native AMericans on the trail of tears, George washington who held slaves, Thomas jefferson who held slaves, Ulysses S. Grant who broke native american treaties, and many more of the people AMerica has celebrated. While all these men have positive track records that supersceed their misdeeds like columbus, because they have misdone they ought to be slandered. Also i would like to point out that y oppenent hasn't posted the source of the quotes that he has taken, so I am unable to find quotes that support my stand point. I hope that my opponent offers the internet source he has received the quote, and if he cannot i ask that the quotes be held void, for i do not know if he made them up or not. Sorry if this debate is a bit choppy i wrote it over a couple of random days, and i dont like to waste tim on speeling because i don think that it is a big deal, so i wont. And i don't expect my opponent to waste time on spelling either as this debate is moot.