Letter to the Editor: National ID Will Take Away Rights

By Sun Advocate

Editor:
It is May 2007. It is a beautiful day so you decide to take the family for a Saturday ride. You vote and its decided you will go to Grand Junction, Colo., and hit the mall. You leave Price and everything is going just fine. You approach the port of entry in Loma, Colo., and notice that the sign has been changed. Where it used to read, “all commercial vehicles must stop” it now reads “all vehicles must stop.”
You wonder what is going on and the kids ask you why we have to stop, and you say, “I have no idea,” but you dutifully pull into the port. The man in charge comes out and asks you for your “papers” and “papers” for everyone in the vehicle. After a moment of bewilderment on your part, he demands your “papers” more forcefully and you finally tell your family to hand over their “papers” (the new National ID cards), only to find out that your wife left her ID at home. At this point the man in charge tells your wife to get out of the car and wait in the building. He then asks you where you are going. You ask what is going on with your wife but the man tells you to just answer his questions and there will be no trouble. You tell him you are going to Grand Junction for some shopping and he tells you that you can’t because the government wants everyone to stay in his or her home territory for a while to cut down on terrorism. He also tells you that your wife will be detained there until you produce her “papers.” You start to protest and he removes you and your children from the car and detains all of you on suspicion of being terrorists because you expressed dissent for government policy.
Fantasy or reality. Have you been paying attention to what is going on in Congress? Did you know that they passed the Real ID Act because it was tacked on the “emergency” appropriations bill and not one senator (including yours) had the courage to demand that it be removed before passage of the spending bill?
Do you want to have to show an internal passport to travel in your own country? To open a bank account? To drive you car? To fly?
The day is fast approaching when we American citizens will have no more rights or freedom than the “comrades” of Red China or Cuba.
This Real ID act is the first step to total government knowledge of and control over your life. We all need to start writing to our congressmen and tell them that we won’t stand still for it.