Columbus Day Should Not be Celebrated.

Note: I don't have sufficient characters to respond to my opponent's videos, and because I believe in a debate where the debaters actually do the debating, I will only respond to the arguments my opponent contextualized. The arguments and responses put forth in the form of YouTube videos will not be considered as a judging factor in this round. My responses: At the end of the day, it seems that the only person who has misrepresented Columbus's legacy is my opponent. Four Contentions/Voting issues: 1. "Failure" My opponent tells us Columbus's journey was a failure and "for that matter a complete fraud." Fraid is "wrongful or criminal deception." [1] Did a Native America send Columbus a postcard telling him that the America's lay west of Europe? Did Columbus somehow... cheat? "The Americas had already been flourishing with civilizations thus were in fact inhabited, making the "discovery" a bit of an overstatement." Relative to the rest of the world, it was the greatest discovery of the time - the discovery of a new world outside of the reaches of their known world. Accident or not - he discovered it. 2. Genocide "Knowing that Columbus and his predecessors did nothing but enslave and bring fatal diseases to natives which eventually lead to their genocide." Does my opponent really think that Columbus *purposefully* brought smallpox to the New World? And he had no predecessors; he was the first to arrive here. My opponent seems to lack basic knowledge; it was smallpox which killed 90-95% of the Native population in the Americas, not "genocide". [2] Fatal diseases don't "eventually lead" to genocide. Bringing smallpox was no genocide at all - it was an accident. So that leaves about 5-10% that were enslaved. Okay - Thomas Jefferson owned a slave. Should we not celebrate him as a Founding Father? In fact, nearly all of our Founding Fathers owned a slave - should we just disregard their achievements merely because slavery was a sign of the times? My opponent forgets that 1492 was during the age of imperialism. It was the norm for large, powerful nations such as Spain, France, and England to colonize and cruelly treat the region's natives. Columbus was merely acting the way any other explorer would have acted during his day and age. In response to my opponent's quote from Howard Zinn's novel: a) In reference to Columbus and Arawaks: "On 22 November Columbus returned to Hispaniola, where he intended to visit Fuerte de la Navidad (Christmas Fort), built during his first voyage, and located on the northern coast of Haiti. Columbus found Fuerte de la Navidad in ruins, destroyed by the native Taino people [an Arawak tribe[3]]. Among the ruins were the corpses of eleven of the first thirty-nine Spanish."[4] It seems that Howard Zinn has merely rewritten history to meet his own ends. b) the devastating effects Zinn writes about happened between 1515 and 1550. Except... Columbus died in 1506. Hmm... So, no, actually - this isn't Columbus committing genocide. Columbus was either a) not on Haiti at the time of said "genocide" or b) dead. This disproves all of my opponent's qualms about Columbus, who, as my opponent states, "did nothing but exploit and enslave". 3. Intent Recall my analogy to Manifest Destiny, to which my opponent placed no response whatsoever. MD resulted in not only the deaths of many Natives, but basically the elimination of an entire group of people. Should we no longer celebrate Manifest Destiny? No. We celebrate MD because of the success of forming a transcontinental nation, but we DO NOT disrespect the lives lost in the process. Simply because we celebrate something does NOT mean we cast an ignorant light to the lives lost. 4. America has long admired Columbus Tie this contention in with intent; Columbus is admired for his discovery. America has more Columbus statues and Columbus memorabilia than any other nation in the world. Columbus's discovery paved the way to British colonization and eventually to the United States. -- Let's look back to the BOP: Each side had to establish contentions. The round ultimately boiled down to four contentions. 1. "Failure" - Refuted, goes to CON. 2. Genocide - Refuted, goes to CON. 3. Intent - CON, See BOP, below. 4. America has long admired Columbus. Goes to CON; there's really no refuting that America admires Columbus. He discovered our continent. BOP of PRO: The PRO had to prove malicious intent in celebrating Columbus Day. Without bad intent, there's no reason to no longer celebrate Columbus Day. Pro fails his BOP. Thank you. Vote CON. [1] American Heritage Dictionary - fraud. [2] http://www.pbs.org... [3]http://en.wikipedia.org... [4] http://en.wikipedia.org... [5] http://rochester.ynn.com...