http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=06546b23-ac7c-4cf2-8339-013d257bfc2e
INTRUSIVE LEGISLATION
By Marc Guttman Published on 2/17/2008
In 2000, a friend and I after reuniting in Nepal decided to explore Tibet and
did some of the hardest traveling either one of us had ever done.
While food, water and life-comforts on an undeveloped high altitude desert
plateau are difficult to find, what made the traveling more difficult was the
Chinese government. One is allowed to travel in Tibet only with a visa and a
government guide service, but we obtained 4-day visas to visit the holy city,
Lhasa. After spending a few days there, John and I started our three-week walk
back to Nepal along the ironically named Freedom Highway.
Few truck drivers would pick us up for fear of punishment. We often would hide
underneath sandbags in the back of trucks. Furthermore, there were occasional
checkpoints. Fortunately, at the very first checkpoint, the guard did not
figure us for national threats and allowed us to purchase travel visas.
Gladly we avoided prison and had a remarkable experience.
Didn't think it would happen here
I never dreamed I would live under this kind of authoritarianism and have to
present my papers at home. But, on May 10, 2005, U.S. senators voted
unanimously, without debate, to pass the unconstitutional Real ID Act that had
stealthily been written into a military appropriations bill.
The legislation requires national standards for state-issued driver licenses
that will serve as security tools. Homeland Security officials argue that to
ensure the authenticity of an ID, it must be checked against secure government
data. The act makes it more difficult for terrorists, illegal immigrants, and
con artists to obtain government-issued identification.
An applicant must provide several certified identification documents. Digital
images of these will be stored in each state's database and must be shared with
other states and federal agencies, establishing a centrally coordinated
database of highly personal and sensitive information. Our information will be
stored in a scanable chip on our cards.
The legislation also grants open-ended authority to the Secretary of Homeland
Security to impose additional standards in the future, including biometric
information, such as retina scans, fingerprints, DNA information, or radio
frequency tracking technology.
This legislation, with estimated costs to the states of tens of billions of
dollars, essentially blackmails state governments, as citizens of states that
do not comply will lose their rights to board airplanes, open bank accounts,
obtain employment, or enter federal buildings. They also cannot apply for
Social Security benefits. Federal funding to state governments can be withheld.
Seventeen states have passed resolutions rejecting the Real ID Act.
To some these measures seem to be reasonable and effective methods to protect
us. Others of us have serious concerns about the protection of our 4th
amendment rights to be secure in (our) persons, houses, papers, and effects,
against unreasonable searches and seizures without probable cause.
Libertarian hero, Congressman Ron Paul, argued against this legislation
declaring the tactic ineffective and more than a minor invasion of our privacy,
While I agree that these issues are of vital importance, this bill will do
very little to make us more secure. It will not address our real
vulnerabilities. It will, however, make us much less free.
Would these ID's really improve our security at the cost of a little liberty?
Some security experts doubt it. Lawbreakers generally do not obey laws and will
obtain forgeries or obtain legitimate cards with false documents or by bribing
bureaucrats.
Legislation will infringe
Reasonable identification standards may at times be appropriate, but this
legislation is too intrusive and there is real potential for abuse. It's
rational to be concerned about how these IDs will infringe on our
constitutionally guaranteed rights and their use to track law-abiding citizens
who obtain them, rather than criminals.
Would not someone who purchased a gun legally essentially be added to a
national gun registry? What about people who wish to attend in anonymity
events, such as an anti-war or anti-government protest, a pro-choice or
pro-life demonstration, a gun show, or a grocery store?
There are also no prohibitions against including such information in the
database. Innocent people may end up on no ride or on broadly defined
terrorist lists to be determined by whoever is in power at the time. Will the
IDs serve as an internal passport with domestic checkpoints? This is all
inappropriate in a free society.
Every time we present our identification, we would be providing our personal
information. Is it unlikely for our information to be stolen from a database by
hackers or sold by corrupt bureaucrats? What if someone loses his or her card?
What happens when the database has internal errors or catches a virus and goes
down?
True threats and violent people
There are true threats from violent people who wish to harm us. Making
ourselves less free, however, does not protect us. The ultimate in security is
jail and the slave labor camp. There is no moral median between these and true
freedom. Benjamin Franklin rightly stated, The society who gives up liberty
for security will wake up one day with neither! Many forget that a free people
are a rare thing throughout world history and that we must be vigilant in
defending our liberty. We are incrementally losing our Constitution and
freedoms.
A foreign policy of nonintervention, peace, and free trade would protect us
significantly better than an authoritarian police state. Our protective
agencies should utilize their legal resources to capture and restrain violent
criminals rather than punishing law-abiding citizens. There are constitutional
methods available to them to accomplish their tasks. Connecticut, if we are to
preserve our individual liberties, we too should reject the Real ID Act.
Marc Guttman is an emergency physician and vice chairman of the Libertarian
Party of Connecticut. He lives in East Lyme.
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