NO! what we have today are broken people! When they start doing their job and people are held accountable for screwing up, then we'll see if we need a national ID card.
Did anyone notice the assault on Ashcroft yesterday? Senate Dim-wit: "Mr. Ashcroft, why will you not dig through the Firearm background check files to see if gun buyers are terrorists???" AG: "Because, the congress authorized the background checks for initial VERIFICATION of gun purchases ONLY." Senator: "Well why not use it since the database is already there???" AG: "Because it would be illegal."
It was the first time I was proud of Ashcroft's actions.
From: EDentification@aol.com cc:
Subject: e-Dentification Alert
URGENT
In the mid 1990s e-Dentification in cooperation with a Canadian company developed the concept of an airport and air travel security system that, had it been deployed, would have effectively thwarted the hijackings and subsequent damage of September 11, 2001.
We are now exploring the resurrection of that system. In order to effectively do so we need a great deal of help. We will need financing, management, engineering, cooperation of hardware and software providers and the contacts to place this system in front of those who can deploy it.
If you can help, know someone who can, or are just interested in finding out more about this, please contact me.
John E.
CEO
Edentification, Inc.
To: Edentifica@aol.com
Subject: Re: e-Dentification Alert
I hope you mean well.
We have met before, and I hope to keep this as civil as possible, but no amount of Big Brother "e-Dentification" biometrics or otherwise "would have effectively thwarted" all of those kamikazes.
But it would have led the United States closer to Orwell's fantasies.
And padded your pocket.
Shame on you for attempting to use this tragedy to expand your business opportunities.
What exactly do you think my grandfather was doing in WWII when he was "fighting for our freedom?"
Respectfully yours,
Sam
"Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Shame on you for missing the point. This is not about Orwell, or profits.
This is about making a contribution that might save some lives. One of our people was injured in the crash at the Pentagon. We are not looking to sell anything. We are looking to work with others to provide a solution that could have saved over 5000 lives.
It is fortunate that the overwhelming response to my message sees the world far more clearly than you do.
You clearly see the world through very jaded eyes.
John E.
CEO
Edentification, Inc.
To: John E.
Subject: Jaded
It's not about being jaded. It's about the ethics and morality constraining well meaning technical advances.
Please don't misunderstand my objection.
I do not object to your success in business, rather, I object to the ultimate objective of this PARTICULAR APPLICATION.
If you could, through biometrics or otherwise, track every single good and evil person in the world, and ring out an alarm at the boarding gate of every possible airliner in the world, you might indeed deter some evil people and save some lives.
But you will have taken freedom of association away from every "free," innocent and decent person in that world.
The people who would control those identification systems will not be you, they will be the same people that were "protecting" those in the WTC...that is, fallible humans. They will be the ones who determine who is "good" and who is "evil" without trial.
Fallible humans with "infallible technology" is more dangerous than it is helpful.
America is about those patriots that sacrificed themselves on the Pennsylvania flight by rushing the terrorists, it is not about cowering to the cowards by sacrificing more freedom.
I think the Secy of Defense has it absolutely correct:
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld On Fox News Sunday September 16, 2001
TONY SNOW, HOST:
RUMSFELD: I think that you have to remember that a terrorist can attack at any time and any place using any technique. And if you were going to [lockdown the US airspace], you would have to do that with every subway, with every port, with every ship, with every crossroad, with every large gathering of human beings.
The way to deal with this problem is not to suddenly become a police state and say we're not going to be free and we're not going to go about our lives; it's to go after the people who are posing this very serious danger to the world. And that's what we need to do.
I do wish you success in business, and happiness in your life, and I pray for the families of the victims daily....and us all.
Just please remember, though the voices may be fewer than those clamoring for a lockdown of fortress America, that there are strong, intelligent, optimistic patriots who will oppose other optimistic patriots such as yourself who would lead us toward more control by a black-budgeted unaccountable government, and less and less freedom.
And that opposition by "jaded" folks is required for a free state.
Sincerely,
Sam
"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt."
John Philpot Curran - requoted by Jefferson, etal later