resolved: The benefits of post-9/11 security measures outweigh the harms to personal freedoms.

I would first like to open my argument with some quotes. "People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both." -Benjamin Franklin "If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too." -- Somerset Maugham "If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." -- Samuel Adams "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." -- Wendell Phillips "The trade-off between freedom and security, so often proposed so seductively, very often leads to the loss of both." -- Christopher Hitchens "Patrick Henry did not say, 'Give me absolute safety or give me death.' " -- John Stossel "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free ... it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson These are just a few quotes. 1. I argue that the eroding of personal freedoms is a slow but visible process. As Americans citizens we must always be vigilante of threats to our freedom no matter how trivial or justified they seem at the time. For if the truths of American liberty is not upheld and constantly guarded by our citizens then sacrifices made by brave men and women to protect these freedoms this country would have been in vain. It is a slippery slope from stripping a few civil liberties to becoming a totalitarian state. Though this may seem like a extreme seizure of power from something that may seem to be harmless at first, we must always be vigilante and be ready to sound the bugle at a moments notice to prevent the perversion of our rights. 2. Life post 9/11. 9/11 is a day for remembrance and reflection. We must remember the three thousand Americans who died, living their lives as they did everyday, doing what they pleased with no cloud of obstruction from fear and rhetoric looming over their heads. We can not allow to be bullied into submission by statesmen, politician and other smooth talkers who use the words that offer consequences that are so terrible if you were to reject them would cause a armageddon in the near future. It is this rhetoric that triggers the most receptive feeling that humans can feel; fear. We are told that fear and terror are the weapons of the enemy combatants, we are told they are steely inhuman creatures who were spawned for the soul purpose of destroying western culture and wage war against other religions. But our own statesmen and politicians use fear to obtain there goals no matter how hypocritical of American values they are. They use this fear to expand the role of government to creep towards "big brother" status. 3. It is true that initially there is a great support for security measures, however these statistics are skewed. These are irrational Americans who are not well informed on the issues. It's not hard to blame these everyday Joe who jump at the idea they they might be safer if they give up this or give up that with no real understanding of the eventual consequences. What little information they do hear from the media often leaves the viewer with ominous feeling for a bleak future. It are these partially informed masses who often no so hard giving up civil liberties or freedom, but it's the citizens who have stake in this land that who believe in the idea of a free America for their children who will put up the toughest resistance. 4. It must be said that the uneducated masses are like sheep being headed to the slaughter with promises of delicious grass and safe pastures. They will believe what they want to hear, and it is that weakness and timidness which will be democracy's unraveling. For the week and timid can not lead this country to be even greater then it was. It must be lead by brave and the bold, those who are willing to speak up against unpopular ideas for they know what they are saying is though not popular but right. So we as Americans must know that with these great freedoms and civil liberties will always come a risk. There are those who may always want bring harm upon us and try to destroy our every day life. There are those who will try to use threats and fear to bring our life to a standstill, and there are those who would go to the ends of the Earth to destroy our way of lives. So i say you we as Americans must stand up with our head held up high and proud, this is but a small price we pay for being free. 5. Though there are security measures which do work, most of them are a plain violation of public liberties. I'm for metal detectors, but i strongly oppose those laws which allow the government to trample our rights and privacy. The patriot act for instance allows for the government to wire tap phones, detain suspects indefinitely and allowed for law to search private property with no warrant. These laws only harm the everyday Americans who are sacrificing liberty for very temporary security. These promises of protection are only temporary, an eventual attack on American soil is going to happen, whether it's a lone gunman or a complex organized attack. But the stripping of civil rights will always be there leaving it's mark on American history.