South Carolina Should Not Be Allowed To Fly A Confederate Flag

So first I will Start by Disecting my opponents Criterion:"My Criterion for this is Offensive Material. In order to maintain their moral duty, the state government must be able to ensure that all citizens are adequately respected. This can only be achieved by removing anything that is state sponsored."The First thing you are going to be looking at here is Morality, morality is subjective however, thirty years ago it was immoral to allow gays to marry, now it is immoral to judge someone based off sexual orientation. Moralities lack of structure and ability to change means it is a poor judging point, because it is not reliable.What you are going to see is that my opponent is required by the BOP to show the flag should not be Flown, his Criterion states that this can only be achieved by removing any and all state sponsored material. That means my opponent has extended his BOP, He must show that "The Flag should not be flown because the state cannot effectively respect citizens without withdrawing all influence" If he cannot you default NegDefinitions offered to ensure clarity:Freedom of Speech: Is defined as the right held by American citizens to speak freely without fear of censorship. This means that Free speech cannot be argued in this case because a state is not considered to be a citizen.Symbolic Speech: Action through which speech is presumedCitizen: An individual member of a sovereign nationThe only thing i would like to point out is that freedom of speech is miss-defined:Freedom of Speech - the right to express any opinions without censorship or restraint. [1]Contention 1): Freedom of speech is applicable to the state just as it is to any individual. In the courtcase Citizens United V. FEC it was determined that companies have freedom of speech, in doing so they also decided that any group composed of individuals also should receive protection from the constitution protecting their freedom of speech. [2] Now this was done because the supreme court looked at groups of individuals like this: Anyone who can have legal action taken against them must have legal rights in order to uphold the constitution, an organization of individuals can be sued, if we deprive them of their rights we would be unjustly practicing law against them.Thus under this conclusion we see that a state, which is defined as:State - a politically unified people occupying a definite territory; nation.[3]That a state is composed of individuals and thus receives the same rights as an individual, It can have legal Protections, and FOS.Contention 2): Flying the flag does not necessarily mean they condone what the public considers it to stand for, Notice that the state flys the flag stands in front of the same state capitol that was the state capitol during the revolution, it is where it belongs. In a place that recognises it as history. It is not flown higher then The US Flag, it is below it, symbolically representing superiority of the US Flag.It is important that we remember our heritage so that we may better ourselves from it. This flag was flown over a nation that was crushed and defeated, the people enslaved in these nations freed, if anything this flag represents how slavery is unsound. The flag is not a symbol of racism or discrimination.Contention 3): BOPMy opponent holds the BOP and thus must prove several things.1) A state is not doing its job unless it withdraws influence from the public.2) the Flag should not be flown3) the Flag is Racist/Discriminatory not based on public view because it it fallacious to make an Appeal to Popularity. [A] Instead they must use empirics that prove its basis.4) they must prove the state is condoning racism by flying it and not any other form of prideResponse 1: South Carolina cannot fly the Confederate Flag because it is a symbol of racism and discrimination.This is not the root of the flag, this flag is derived from history, It was not created to extend racism but to represent a group of people who felt their national government did not have their best interests in mind, after the civil war it still flew and people were never killed under it due to race, this flag has incorrectly been matched to racism. "In the Southern states that were once members of the self-declared Confederate States of America and whose attempted secession set off the American Civil War a certain revisionist view of that time is very popular today. Its known as "The Lost Cause of the Confederacy" and its roots go back to the reconstruction period immediately following the South's Civil War defeat" This flag existed as a battle flag before reconstruction.'Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth'"This does not show why the flag should not be flown, it does not show the flag is immoral."This of course is significant to the argument because it shows that the Confederate Flag is a racist symbol and as I've already shown in my Value and Criterion denies the main purpose of a government, to uphold the rights of the people. If an individual was to wear a Confederate flag it is protected as symbolic speech; however, the government is the not an individual."First, I have shown the state does in fact retain the rights of an individual, Secound should we restrict hindu's because hitler has stolen their symbol? "he swastika was an important symbol for many thousands of years and, to this day, the symbol can still be seen in abundance - on temples, buses, taxis, and on the cover of books" [4] No we shouldnt, again, morality changesResponse 2: The Confederate Flag is a flag of traitors against the United States, therefore it has no business being on a state capital.In his book, Tupelo, John Hill Aughey relates a sermon he preached, during that year, against Southern secession while at the "Poplar Creek Presbyterian church of Choctaw County, Mississippi.Sorry cutting a little for Characters, These Sermons you Quote are one man's opinion on treason, however the states that rebelled had their own flags previous to their succession and still have them today, they do not represent treason or secession, instead they are pride in state. This means that the Confederate flag is a sign of treason because the powers the Southern States attempted to use could not be adequately derived from any source. Now, this is significant because the secession of the Southern States should be a shameful time for all of them, but especially South Carolina, it should not be celebrated, especially at a public place like a capital.If anything this plays into my second contention.Response 3: A similar supreme court decision shows that a state cannot put offensive materials on its property."The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld Texas" refusal to issue a license plate bearing the Confederate battle flag, rejecting a free-speech challenge.The court said in a 5-4 ruling that Texas can limit the content of license plates because they are state property and not the equivalent of bumper stickers."This is significant because it shows that the flag should not be put on state property. It also shows that there is genuine concern that the flag will offend citizens.This again shows how the state is an individual, It also shows it is up to the states discretion what can and cannot exist on state property, in this case they are removing the flag.[1]http://dictionary.reference.com...[2]http://www.oyez.org...[3]http://dictionary.reference.com...[4]http://www.ancient-origins.net...[A]http://www.nizkor.org...