I appreciate your opinion on the matter of licensure, and in my estimation it does touch on a number of important issues. In the end, I do not agree with your final conclusion, but let me explain why before you express your reasons for disagreement with me further.
What are the main issues that spur this sudden demand for rock solid identity these days? It is my opinion that the contributing factors were each problems in their own right, and being ignored or the result of ill-advised decision, and yet they are forcing something that should not be forced at this time or ever.
Why do we need solid identification at the polls? We need that solid identification because our dear legislators loosened the laws governing voter registration to the point that we now must identify ourselves before voting. It used to be we had to register to vote more than a month before the election. We had to do so in a manner that proved who we were. And we did that once. Once we were registered, we were registered. You didn’t have to prove your identity after that. You stay registered for twenty years, you don’t have to provide your papers again. Why? In most instances it was because folks at your local precinct knew you. You were their neighbor.
We now allow motor voter and mail in registrations. We allow same day registrations. This opens us up to all manner of fraud. We knew it was going to up front. We still know it ‘s problematic, but we allow it anyway. And the result is, that we now find ourselves in the situation where citizens must prove they are.
IMO, we would be much better off to roll back the laws. Reduce the size of our precincts to the point that people running the polls knew their clientelle. And increase the penalties for voting fraudulently to make it clear we weren’t messing around. Anyone defrauding the electoral system should serve five to ten years for having done so. This is the very core of our self-representation. We have allowed it to be subverted through ignorance.
Don’t make this a ‘show me your papers please’ moment just because we couldn’t use better judgement. IMO, this only compounds the problem. We don’t care to fix the problem we created, so lets create another problem on top of it. No.
We now allow people from nations like Saudi Arabia to come to the United States for extended periods of time. On 09/11 a significant portion of the 09/11 perps came from there. Now U.S. Citizens must show their I.D. when boarding an aircraft. Why? Because our leaders passed laws that allow problematic foreign nationals to flood our nation. That was another terrible decision, but instead of correcting that problem, our leaders now want to (and have) create(d) another ‘show us your papers’ momment. Once again, we fix a very flawed process by creating another problem. No!
We allow illegal immigrants to flood our nation. No problem. “We must have them.” And once again, instead of using good judgement, we come up with a ‘show us your papers’ moment to fix it. Once again, we fix a problem by creating another. No!
Today we have come up with a number of reasons why we must have ‘show us your papers’ moments. And guess what, we’re just getting started. Pretty soon it will be trains, buses, car license and facial recognition cameras and software watching our every move. We already have a federal government that is developing a massieve dosier on every citizen, and now the FBI wants my genetic code in it’s files. What is to stop them for freezing that code and cloning my person at will? To set up a situation where that could be done, is just plain madd. But that’s what is now on the radar.
Folks, I emplore you. Please take a look at where we are headed. Lets address the root problems and quite setting up more ‘show us your papers’ moments.
I am a Christian. I do believe that a demand for identity will come back to bite us in ways we may not even be able to imagine. It won’t matter, because when it does, we will have deemed so many great ideas to fix problems we created to be reasonable, that we will be helpless to prevent it at that point.
Please do not be sucked into these damands for ever increasing controls on U.S. Citizens.
Somehow we survived the 1960s and 70s without becoming a police state in reaction to voting problems and hijacked aircraft. We remained a free society then, and we can now. If we didn’t have the electronic capabilities that we do today, this would all be academic, because we would live with sanity because we wouldn’t have the ability to do otherwise.
Well today we do have the ability to do what we are doing. And I think we’re growing extremely short sighted. We indeed do not need no stinking badges. What’s more, we could use a hell of a lot less stinking badges, and to that end I urge folks to gain some perspective about what they are signing on to.
If we could survive as a people to this point without a police state, we can survive now without one. Fix the periferal causel effects, and leave our citizens alone.
There will still be, BTW, some differences between the licenses issued by the various states.
John / Billybob
DoughtyOne, you saved me a lot of typing.
The root problem is that our governments have become giant entitlement warehouses where anybody can shop.
In a multitude of misguided ways, our governments have taxed us for nearly half our income and have enticed others to become government dependents.
If I thought that mandating more IDs would solve the problem, I might be more supportive. But I am more than skeptical that anything will really be accomplished.
I personally have SIX photo IDs in my wallet right now. That is what is required for me to accomplish what I want to do. If illegal immigrants are thriving in our society with none, then it is not for lack of IDs, but for incentives to operate without them.
In order to deprive criminals of access to guns, I have had to pay for background checks about a dozen times in the last five years, for a total of probably $600. Does my sacrifice of time and resources work? Of course not.
My daughters Social Security number is being used by somebody in another state. As far as I know, nothing whatever has been done about this. Until the opportunities to use the IDs that we are already required to have are exhausted, I will remain unconvinced.