Security for Freedom?

[patriot]

Since I consider freedom to be a greater gift than security I will vote !NO!

[Billy]

Everybody hates standing in line for security checks at airports etc, well I don't. Surveillance cameras etc. are a necessary evil, and national ID cards seem to me to be ok - if you ain't breaking the law, you shouldn't be worried.

[kilroy]

i think the concern most people have is that surveillance cameras, etc, will be set up under the guise of providing security, only to be used for more dubious activities such as blackmail, or that the gov't will suddenly start passing laws like caning people for spitting chewing gun out on the sidewalk. anybody want to live in singapore?

obviously, there has to be a balance between freedom and security. where people disagree is where the balance should be.

remember the book 'johnny got his gun'? remember when good 'ol johnny was musing about freedom?

'you tell a man he can't kill, and you take away some of his freedom.'

there's quite a bit more to the quote, but the passage is quite thought-provoking. those who have read the book may know the part i'm talking about. i'd quote a bit more of it if my copy wasnt half the world away.

[Billy]

If the government starts caning people for spitting on the sidewalk, vote them out

That's democracy

[kilroy]

i was just saying what i percieved the concern to be about. i didnt say that i thought it made sense.

[patriot]

Billy, what are you fighting for? Freedom or security?

[Shining Eye]

Candy-assed little bitch Patriot, parroting the liberal/left sky-is-falling, Big Brother is watching, government conspiracy, counter-culture rhetoric warmed over from the Sixties. Douchebag, the sky didn't fall then and it is not falling now. Try looking up life under Martial Law and quit whining about standing in an airport security line, pussy.

[sorcerer]

Vote them out? Would you please remind me who won the popular vote in 2000

[Bobby Sands]

If the government starts caning people for spitting on the sidewalk, vote them out

That's democracy

Yeah, that's why the Founding Fathers didn't found a democracy.

When the US becomes the kind of place where layers of civil police, private guards, and military folk can stop anyone and demand "your papers please," then this place will be down the toilet, and Americans will envy Europeans for their freedom AND prosperity.

[Renard]

This poll is a little too black and white.

Security is a freedom and a right. You can find it in most rights and freedoms charters throughout the world. There is an old Roman adage that says: "the safety of the people is the first rule of law".

No one can be truly free if they are living in a state of fear. That is, if people don't feel safe, then they cannot feel free. Whether that state of fear is created by the government or by the actions of terrorists, I leave that to your discretion.

[RYP]

Would you trade pot lids for marshmellows? There is no connection. Personal security comes from a vigliant, armed, proactive community not from Washington DC. Anyone who went through the LA riots had a nice lesson in reality. You didnt have to go to Liberia or Iraq to figure it out.

Bottom Line is that we provide security for our government, not the other way around.

Freedom? The anathema of large centralized governments. Laws don't protect freedom, they restrict it.

[GeneTherapy]

Personal security comes from a vigliant, armed, proactive community not from Washington DC. Anyone who went through the LA riots had a nice lesson in reality.

Anyone who goes through the Federalized airport gate security check should know that security doesn't come from DC.

Freedom? The anathema of large centralized governments. Laws don't protect freedom, they restrict it.

Exactly.

Idiots want a big nanny state to watch over them and tell them what to do.