Isabella Manzanares

Congressional Debate Assignment

My fellow representatives, I stand in the firmest negation of the resolution to ban
censorship within the United States. I believe this for two different reasons. One is that it
stunts our imagination and our future generations . The second one is that it violates
one of the first basic laws. Censorship is when a person has control of information and
ideas that are talked about. The government blocks content that may be inappropriate
or distraught for others to see. One of the first reported cases of censorship was in
1864. It had to deal with a postmaster general that located nude pictures. They were
being sent to Civil War troops. There soon became laws that prohibited this from
happening in the U.S mail. This was just the beginning of the complexities that the
future would bring.
Censorship in North Korea is very strong and is the most intense around the
world. The government prohibits almost all internet access and only showcases
government propaganda. This limits the imagination of North Korean citizens. Another
thing it does is stunt our future generations so that young children grow up in a dystopia.
If censorship is illegal, teens are more likely to know what kind of diseases there are.
They will be aware of the life going on around them. Overall, if censorship was legal,
peoples thought process would be stopped and the flow of ideas would be blocked.
The first amendment says that Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of press thereof; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble,and to petition the government for a redress of grievances This states that
the government can not make any laws that stop us from saying how we feel or think. It
also says that we have a right to get information from different sources. The government
is not in control of what is on social media, newspapers and headlines. An example of
censorship takes place in China. China has strict laws for people who trash talk about
the government. They hire up to 100,000 people to monitor the internet. They have also
created a firewall to make sure and see what users are doing. This just proves that if
censorship is in the government hands, they are able to control what they want us to
see.
In conclusion, I believe that censorship should be illegal. There are many
countries whose government censors all of their news on a daily basis. Banning
censorship globally, can help our future generations to be more cautious and have a
free mind without people instructing them what to think or feel. Another thing is that if we
were going to allow censorship, it would be violating the first amendment. We have the
right to know what is going on and not being blocked out.