In my wallet is a green and white card with my name, address, date of birth, height, weight (approximately) and eye color, along with various codes and numbers. It’s my driver’s license and unlike almost every one of the millions of other American drivers’ licenses, it does not have a photo.
Vermont is the only state to still issue non-photo drivers’ licenses and Vermont now only issues them to people who already hold one. All new licenses must have a photo. My club is small and exclusive.
State officials explain our iconoclastic licenses by saying we’re a small, rural state and Department of Motor Vehicle offices, until recently were few and far between and yada, yada, yada. Truth is, Vermont is an eccentric and contrary state. Vermont is the only state where it is legal to shoot fish (three months of the year), the only state that does not require a permit for concealed weapons and drivers are allowed to pass on a solid yellow line (provided they do not exceed the speed limit).
I requested a non-photo driver’s license because – well, because I suppose I’m eccentric and contrary, too. I also realized the photo-free license would soon be extinct and possessing one would be like having a passenger pigeon with my name and birth date on it.
Page A21 of Monday’s New York Times reports that an intelligence bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives Friday calls on all states to issue standardized drivers’ licenses and non-license IDs; the bill passed the Senate Oct. 1. Although the states will not be forced to comply with the new law, authority over standardized IDs will be turned over to the Department of Homeland Security and citizens whose identification differs from federal standards may be refused passage on airplanes and other modes of interstate transit. Why make something mandatory with such powerful coercion at hand?
The Department of Homeland Security-approved ID cards, in addition to having photos (no head scarves) and the usual birth, address and physical description data, may also require a fingerprint or eyeprint. Of course, the information contained on each card will be duplicated on a central database, which will be accessible to federal and state authorities and computer hackers of moderate competence.
Would it be wrong to point out that similar, less sophisticated identity cards were required by the German government in the 1930s and that the agency in charge was the Homeland State Police, better known by its contracted name – the Gestapo? No, I’m not saying the majority Republicans in Congress are Nazis, nor am I implying that George W. Bush is analogous to Adolf Hitler.
I am saying that requiring national identification cards is a step – a significant step – in moving America toward a totalitarian state, just as it was in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and apartheid-era South Africa.
Friday’s intelligence bill calls for “an integrated network of screening points that includes the nation’s border security system, transportation system and critical infrastructure facilities that the secretary determines need to be protected against terrorist attack.”
That’s frightening language and huge power for Tom Ridge. Want to walk down the street for a quart of milk? Your street is part of the “transportation system,” so you’d better bring your identity papers, in case you encounter a “screening point” between your house and the corner. Want to go to the anti-Bush “Vote for Change” concert at Washington, DC’s MCI Center? That building might be deemed a “critical infrastructure facility” and the police may decide to scan the ID of everyone who attends. If you think it’s repugnant that people are forced to sign a loyalty oath before attending a Bush-Cheney campaign rally, wait until you have to sign one before attending a ballgame.
Think this is alarmist? Did you notice the people being scooped up in orange nets on the streets of Manhattan during the Republican convention? Have you seen citizens stripped of their Constitutional rights with the magic words “enemy combatant?”
My text-only driver’s license expires next spring. I worry about what else might have expired by then.
What’s In Your Wallet?
In my wallet is a green and white card with my name, address, date of birth, height, weight (approximately) and eye color, along with various codes and numbers. It’s my driver’s license and unlike almost every one of the millions of other American drivers’ licenses, it does not have a photo.
Vermont is the only state to still issue non-photo drivers’ licenses and Vermont now only issues them to people who already hold one. All new licenses must have a photo. My club is small and exclusive.
State officials explain our iconoclastic licenses by saying we’re a small, rural state and Department of Motor Vehicle offices, until recently were few and far between and yada, yada, yada. Truth is, Vermont is an eccentric and contrary state. Vermont is the only state where it is legal to shoot fish (three months of the year), the only state that does not require a permit for concealed weapons and drivers are allowed to pass on a solid yellow line (provided they do not exceed the speed limit).
I requested a non-photo driver’s license because – well, because I suppose I’m eccentric and contrary, too. I also realized the photo-free license would soon be extinct and possessing one would be like having a passenger pigeon with my name and birth date on it.
Page A21 of Monday’s New York Times reports that an intelligence bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives Friday calls on all states to issue standardized drivers’ licenses and non-license IDs; the bill passed the Senate Oct. 1. Although the states will not be forced to comply with the new law, authority over standardized IDs will be turned over to the Department of Homeland Security and citizens whose identification differs from federal standards may be refused passage on airplanes and other modes of interstate transit. Why make something mandatory with such powerful coercion at hand?
The Department of Homeland Security-approved ID cards, in addition to having photos (no head scarves) and the usual birth, address and physical description data, may also require a fingerprint or eyeprint. Of course, the information contained on each card will be duplicated on a central database, which will be accessible to federal and state authorities and computer hackers of moderate competence.
Would it be wrong to point out that similar, less sophisticated identity cards were required by the German government in the 1930s and that the agency in charge was the Homeland State Police, better known by its contracted name – the Gestapo? No, I’m not saying the majority Republicans in Congress are Nazis, nor am I implying that George W. Bush is analogous to Adolf Hitler.
I am saying that requiring national identification cards is a step – a significant step – in moving America toward a totalitarian state, just as it was in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and apartheid-era South Africa.
Friday’s intelligence bill calls for “an integrated network of screening points that includes the nation’s border security system, transportation system and critical infrastructure facilities that the secretary determines need to be protected against terrorist attack.”
That’s frightening language and huge power for Tom Ridge. Want to walk down the street for a quart of milk? Your street is part of the “transportation system,” so you’d better bring your identity papers, in case you encounter a “screening point” between your house and the corner. Want to go to the anti-Bush “Vote for Change” concert at Washington, DC’s MCI Center? That building might be deemed a “critical infrastructure facility” and the police may decide to scan the ID of everyone who attends. If you think it’s repugnant that people are forced to sign a loyalty oath before attending a Bush-Cheney campaign rally, wait until you have to sign one before attending a ballgame.
Think this is alarmist? Did you notice the people being scooped up in orange nets on the streets of Manhattan during the Republican convention? Have you seen citizens stripped of their Constitutional rights with the magic words “enemy combatant?”
My text-only driver’s license expires next spring. I worry about what else might have expired by then.
(c) Mark Floegel, 2004