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Supporters claim the national ID scheme is voluntary. However, any state that opts out will automatically make non-persons out of its citizens. The citizens of that state will be unable to have any dealings with the federal government because their ID will not be accepted. They will not be able to fly or to take a train. In essence, in the eyes of the federal government they will cease to exist. It is absurd to call this voluntary, and the proponents of the national ID know that every state will have no choice but to comply. Federal legislation that nationalizes standards for drivers’ licenses and birth certificates creates a national ID system pure and simple.
President Bush signed the REAL ID Act into law on May 11, 2005.
On January 10 Homeland Security* Secretary Michael Chertoff attempted to justify REAL ID during a meeting with an advisory council:
We worked very closely with the states in terms of developing a plan that I think will be inexpensive, reasonable to implement, and produce the results. This is a win-win. As long as people use driver's licenses to identify themselves for whatever reason, there's no reason for those licenses to be easily counterfeited or tampered with.
Under the new regulations, beginning in 2014, anyone born after Dec. 1, 1964 who wants to board an airplane or enter a federal building would have to present a REAL ID-compliant driver's license. States will have until 2017 to bring those born before December 1, 1964 under the new regulations. According the AP, "officials say the risk of someone in that age group being a terrorist, illegal immigrant, or con artist is much less."
As a member of the apparent "low risk" age group, I am glad that Homeland Security does not consider me a likely candidate to be on a first-name basis with Osama bin Laden and that I will not have to carry a virtual homing beacon embedded with who-knows-what personal data for another nine years. However, those of us who have lived (and driven) all those many years have an even better perspective than our younger associates as to exactly how nosy Big Brother has become.
For example, the story about this new change notes: "The traditional driver's license photograph would be taken at the beginning of the application instead of the end so that should someone be rejected for failure to prove identity and citizenship, the applicant's photo would be kept on file," and also "Over the next year, the government expects all states to begin checking both the Social Security numbers and immigration status of license applicants."
Many readers remember when Social Security cards bore the message: "For Social Security and Tax Purposes - Not for Identification." But that was many years ago. Now your Social Security number has become a virtual universal identifier, to be used — or abused — by government agents; credit bureaus such as Trans Union, Equifax and Experian; and identity thieves alike.
Not many will question the phrase about the "traditional driver's license photograph," however. Which brings up an interesting question: What does having one's photograph taken have to do with his or her ability or right to drive an automobile? Theoretically, and even traditionally, all a license certified its holder to do was to operate a motor vehicle. No one said that someone needed a license to fly on an airplane. (Operate an airplane, yes, fly on one, no.)
Believe it or not, driver's licenses did not always have photographs on them. I know that younger readers must think this writer must be older than Methuselah, but — being an extremely nostalgic pack rat — I just happen to still have a license issued to me by the state of New Jersey in 1980. It has a name and address and a signature on it, but no picture. (See illustration.)
Since those rather easygoing years, the driver's license has gone from being a license to drive, to something you must pull out to prove who you are almost everywhere. Those who have visited Europe are used to showing their passport in numerous locations, including airports, train stations, hotels, and more but, so far, we in the United States have enjoyed unparalleled freedom and have never needed a domestic passport.
All that is about to change, however. And something I am not nostalgic about are the scenes in vintage, World War II-era movies wherein people boarding trains in Germany are relentlessly hounded by helmeted soldiers demanding: "Let me see your papers!"
We seem to have forgotten that a truly free people should be at liberty to go where they please and do as they wish without the government demanding an ID at every turn. Proponents of the REAL ID scheme will say it is intended to fight crime and prevent terrorism. In practice it will do no such thing. A criminal or a terrorist is intent on breaking the law and will not be stopped by a national ID card. But law-abiding citizens will be increasingly controlled and tracked by government bureaucrats as a result of the REAL ID plan. And that is inappropriate in the land of the free.
But this is also the home of the brave. So, if you are one of the latter who would like roll back government encroachments on our freedoms, then join with others who feel the same. And make sure to sign up for our alert network to be notified of important legislative action items and other time sensitive information when they happen.
*A search of the Department of Homeland Security website using the search term “licenses” produces many pages of information about the department’s goals in this area.
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