People should not celebrate Columbus day, and not look up to him

As my opponent has not set a structure for the round, I'm not going to negate her constructive yet out of fairness to her in case that's the way she wanted it. We have an extremely long debate in front of us, so it won't make a huge impact on the debate.Contention 1: How the round will be judged.My first contention will be arguing over how the round will be judged. If my opponent agrees to it, then she may simply drop the contention as it's counting as true will not actually weigh on the arguments themselves, only how they are judged.Subpoint A: Burden of ProofAs my opponent has stated a claim, the burden of proof is upon her to prove that claim correct[1]. As the resolution states "People should not celebrate Columbus day, and not look up to him", she must, in fact prove two things. The first, being that people should not celebrate Columbus day, and the second being that people should not look up to Christopher Columbus as a role model, example, or any other sense of the term, due to the critical word and. Should my opponent not be able to prove both arguments in her case, the burden of proof fails and the case will be successfully negated.Subpoint B: Duty of the NegativeThis subpoint is simply to explain how I need to win the case. There are two possible ways for me to negate the resolution. The first would be to prevent the Pro from upholding her burden of proof of one or both of the claims made in the resolution through argumentation. The second way would be to prove how people should either celebrate Columbus day, look up to Christopher Columbus, or both, thus proving at least one of the statements the resolution is standing on false.Contention 2: The United States of America have historical ties to Columbus."The second Monday in October is celebrated across America as Columbus Day."[4], Because of this sentence, I can conclude that the round will be focused around America's use of Columbus Day, so I'll focus on that. Columbus, as we all know, was the first evoy from the Spanish to land in the Western Hemisphere, first in the Bahamas, the first to set up a military structure in the Western Hemisphere (in modern day Haiti), and the first to name several islands in the Hispaniola region. [2]. If it were not for Columbus's exploration and colonization in the region, the Western Hemisphere would not have been colonized for quite some time, if at all. And, logically, if the region were not colonized or explored thoroughly, then the English and French would not have set up colonies, and the United States of America would never come to be. Therefore, because America has historical ties to Columbus, and have him to thank for its founding, America is justified in celebrating Columbus Day as a national holiday, and in looking up to him as the man who discovered America.Contention 3: Columbus inspired many future explorers.Were Columbus not looked up to in the past, many of the famous explorers of the past and the discoveries we have because of them would never have come to be. The mere act of Columbus finding a "New World" and finding that the inhabitants of that region were seemingly rich in Gold, he inspired a new wave of explorers who came to the Western Hempisphere, explored the region, and set up colonies[3]. If Columbus were not looked up to in the past, the world as we know it would not exist, and would instead be replaced with new names, new national boundaries, and other consequences that would come about from the colonies discovered and explored by Colombus. Furthermore, Because Columbus inspired the exploration of the Western Hemisphere, and because of all of his accomplishments as listed in Contention 2, he should be looked up to by the citizens of the United States as the man who found the Americas.Common objections:This section is to adress commonly made objections and rebut them before they are made. A pre-buttal, if you will."But Columbus made Hispanics into slaves!"A common objection made by those discrediting Columbus would be that he took slaves in the region then known as Hispaniola. However, Slavery was a common practice at the time and many of our own presidents had slaves. If we couldn't honor or look up to someone because of slaves, then we couldn't look up to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson (he was actually one of the largest slaveowners in Virginia), Andrew Jackson, and James K. Polk, to name the most well-known[5]. Not only would we not be able to look up to these famous presidents as leaders, but we wouldn't be able to celebrate Presidents Day because many of our first Presidents owned slaves."Columbus didn't know he was settling the Western Hemisphere!"Although Columbus thought he found a new landmass near Asia, and continued to believe that untill his death [3], that does not make his impacts any less huge. Regardless of whether or not he knew it, he still mapped the Western Hemisphere, and thus still made it possible to colonize in the future, and he still inspired a whole new generation of explorers who made this New World possible."But he spread plagues among the native population!"A common claim made is that because Columbus spread plagues among the Indigenous population of the Hispanic region[6], and inspired further plagues brought by other Europeans, he should not be looked up to. However, it is not fair to look to Columbus for the blame. The reason the plagues actually occurred was because the immunities of the indigenous population were not used to these diseases, and as such could not properly stop them before it spread and killed rapidly. This means that any European who would have eventually reached the Western Hemisphere would have spread these diseases, it was simply inevitable, and so you can't blame any one man for the failures of an immune system."But he brough a plague back to Europe!"Another claim, similar to the last, is that Columbus brought back Syphilis to the Europeans[7] and a plague of that ravaged in his homeland. However, for this rebuttal, you can look back to my arguments made in the last prebuttal, but alter it to where the Europeans' immune systems weren't able to stop the plague.Works Cited:1.) http://www.nizkor.org...2.) http://en.wikipedia.org...3.) http://www.theholidayzone.com...4.) http://www.debate.org...5.) http://home.nas.com...6.) http://listverse.com...7.) http://findarticles.com...