Typically to start a great debate, you need 2 equally important values kicking eachother in the head.

Resolved: Family Security is more important that freedom.

I'll go first.

I agree with the above statement. While Bejnamin Franklin is famous for the quote: "The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either." Didn't spend any time in todays world. He understood the concept of dieing to protect something such as land, or an idea, but what about the concept of dieing to project an idea upon someone else?

Terrorism, may not be as rampant as George W. Bush would have us believe, with a new suicide bomber around ever corner, and arabs looking for a new way to steal an airplane and crash it into a building on a daily basis, but a very real threat is out there, and certain freedoms should be given up in order to secure our society. We can commit terrorism every day simply by exercising our own american freedom of speech.

Like my freedom to run through an airport, screaming at the top of my lungs, "I'm going to crash an airplane", or yelling "fire" in the middle of a crowded theatre when there is no fire is one that I should not be allowed to exercise without some form of reprecussion. The blunt force attack on your security, and moreover well-being that either of these two "freedoms" enact upon your security could cost you a good nights sleep, a limb, or even your life.

Oliver Wendel Holmes Jr. is famous for the quote "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins." I think the above paragraph is an extreme example of this quotation and, evidence that Security should be valued over freedom.

What freedoms do we give up, in order to ensure the security of other people? The freedom to drink alcohol and drive, the freedom to drive without a seatbelt, the freedom to say "I intend to kill the president" over the phone... etc etc. There is no freedom I give here without much thought in order to increase my, and everyone elses security around me.