Threat of National ID
In William Safire's "The Threat of National ID", Safire argues against a National ID Card, that he says will be used by zealots as the holy grail of snoopery. Safire bases his argument around a comparison of a lost pet with newly developed chips implanted underneath their skin that would let animal shelters alert owners, of their pets' whereabouts. In comparison, Safire says of the cards, it would be like making everybody in the United States - under penalty of law - to carry what the totalitarians used to call "papers"." Safire seems to strongly appose the ID card, and rightfully so.I believe that like Safire says, "In time the card would contain not only a fingerprint, description of DNA and the details of your eye's iris, but a host of other information about you."The reason proponents think these cards should be
created is to help prevent future incidences like those that occurred on September 11, 2001. My personal opinion is that this card would not stop these events from occurring. Law makers, law enforcement, and the media would eat up the first couple of foiled attempts at wrong doing, stopped by these cards, but what happens when the terrorists catch on and find their way around our system? Also, how much would such a system cost? Would the number be in the millions, billions, or trillions? Does our country have the financial resources necessary to effectively establish such a system without being detrimental to our other numerous national security measures?Simply put, Safire, as well as myself view this as a very poor excuse for our politicians attempt at alleviating the terrorism predicament that the United States has currently found itself in. What happens if these cards get stolen or lost? Would I have to wait in an airport like Tom Hanks in the film "The Terminal", would I be denied a job or be placed in custody because of what someone who had stolen my card had did while in its possession? If the card isn't returned after being lost, there will have to be a lot of expensive security measures to make sure I am the one who receives a replacement, and not my friendly neighbor Osama, correct? Who will enter the information into the database that will be needed to store every single American's information? Will it be the same person who fat fingered my college entrance information to read "Chirs Barros?" What if the information is incorrect? What will happen then; and who will be there to say, you are who you say you are?Also it is my experience that too much of a good thing generally is, a bad thing. Here are another couple of thoughts to ponder. Not the kind of "protection" I would like to think my tax money is there to pay for. This is a system where all unassuming Americans' every move could be monitored and recorded. The hijackers of the planes on 9/11 had passports, this goes beyond our "National ID" to International ID and it still could not stop them. These cards would be good and effective for a time; I'm not here to argue their initial presence and effectiveness. Also I feel that even if the government was effective in not giving these cards to terrorists, they could still obtain them just as they do passports, birth certificates and other forms of identification by both legal and illegal means.
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