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October 29, 2004
You Want Fries With That? I'll Need to See Some ID
I have been noticing a frightening trend across America lately. It is increasingly the case that you have to prove your identity to do more and more simple things.
A while ago, I wrote about the need to show your papers to board an airplane. Since then, the California Highway Patrol set up "sobriety checkpoints" -- places along the road where you are stopped and asked for a driver's license. The most recent use of this highly illegal tactic occurred on Labor Day.
I doubt that there was any mischief intended by the CHP, they merely wanted to attempt to decrease the number of highway deaths on the deadliest day of the year (at least, deadliest as far as driving is concerned).
CONSTANT VIGILANCE -- this is the price that must be paid to insure our freedom. We must not allow our freedoms to be spent lightly for increased "safety" and "security."
But today I learned of an even more obscene request for identification...
My brother attends the local public high school. It is a reasonably good school. It has phenomenal athletic programs, and the academics, while not quite top-notch, are satisfactory...
Today my brother received a letter informing him that beginning next week, if a student wishes to purchase any food item from the cafeteria, a valid current student ID must be presented. Even if the payment method is cash.
Worse, if the student refuses to identify himself, not only is he forbidden to buy food, but he will be subject to a four-hour detention!
It is only a matter of time before the rest of the world mocks us, just as we mocked the Russians, when they demanded that law-abiding citizens to "show their papers".
How do I know this time will come? Not because of a slippery-slope theory, but because we have allowed two consecutive generations to grow up not expecting to be free, not caring about freedom, indeed not even noticing when government steps in and takes a few more freedoms... this is just business as usual and nothing to be overly concerned about. That attitude will be the death of American freedom yet.
— The Shelanman
Posted by andrew at October 29, 2004 10:24 PM
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