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posted by [personal profile] ebonypearl at 01:36pm on 24/03/2008

Critters at the Door
Originally uploaded by nodigio

Oklahoma is one of the states that has banned compliance with REAL ID, and this makes me very happy. We already have so many different forms of ID we need to "prove" we're citizens. we don't need one more.

Driver's licenses are permits to drive a motorized vehicle, nothing more. They should not ever be used as a valid form of ID, and I have never used mine for ID purposes.

My Social Security Card and Passport should be more than enough ID to "prove" I'm a US Citizen. The Social Security Card, at least, must be acquired by all people born in the US, making it the ideal "universal" ID card.

I resent being treated like a criminal and forced to show my "papers".

I still have my grandparents' and mother's papers and ration cards they had to show in Germany and I refuse to be in the same position they were put in, humiliated by people in uniform who could demand their papers at any time, and would beat them or imprison them if the papers weren't presented quickly enough.

I know that's not the reason Oklahoma refuses to comply with the REAL ID program - they cite economic reasons. I really don't care what reasons they give so long as we don't get that program here.

I don't want to have to carry "papers" with me everywhere I go and have to show them to any little despot in a uniform who thinks he can control me.

Can we say "civil disobedience" here?

This is one issue I will protest. The memory of being forced to carry "papers", and the consequences thereof, are still too recent to cave in on this. Did our politicians learn nothing from World War II? Must we repeat the misery and fear and degradation all over again?


There are 8 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 
posted by [identity profile] madwriter.livejournal.com at 08:53pm on 24/03/2008
Your passport, being a federal ID, IS supposed to qualify then as a federal ID. (I know that sentence is repetitive; it's meant to be so.)
 
posted by [identity profile] ebonypearl.livejournal.com at 10:39pm on 24/03/2008
I know, but the way they're pushing this REAL ID, it apparently will be more valid than a passport. I think all we need is either a SS card or a passport, and we shouldn't have to flash them around like we were showing off cute overload pictures.
 
posted by (anonymous) at 09:42pm on 24/03/2008
but for the vast majority of people they no longer remember history or no longer believe it. If REAL ID is only defeated because of economic reasons, it will not be too much longer before a national ID card comes back in a different guise trying to do the same thing.
 
posted by [identity profile] ebonypearl.livejournal.com at 10:40pm on 24/03/2008
I know, but as long as they cite economic reasons and delay, maybe we can work on changing their minds for other reasons.
 
posted by [identity profile] boogieshoes.livejournal.com at 11:09am on 25/03/2008
incidentally, SS cards are not supposed to be used for ID, either, and you don't have to have one, legally - otoh, if you choose not to, you might as well start carrying around a laminated card with that section of law printed on it for when people ask for it.

-bs
 
posted by [identity profile] ebonypearl.livejournal.com at 10:51pm on 25/03/2008
You do have to have a social security card if you are born in the US in the last 20-25 years - along with filling out the birth certificate, new parents are required to fill out a Social Security application form.

I would consider it a more valid ID than a passport since it became a required document. You can't enroll in a public school, apply for college, get a job, get a driver's license, file taxes or receive a tax refund, or open a bank account without one (OK maybe there are parts of the country where you can, but I have never encountered any here in the south end of the country). It is used as proof of citizenship already for all of these reasons, whether it's legally required or not.
 
posted by [identity profile] boogieshoes.livejournal.com at 11:27am on 26/03/2008
that's extremely new, then. do you have a link? i'd like to cross-check, if i may. i do know that when SS cards came out, there was a big stink over how they'd be made into national ID cards, and it was deliberately made part of the legislation that they *weren't supposed to be* used for ID'ing somebody....

-bs
 
posted by [identity profile] ebonypearl.livejournal.com at 10:25pm on 26/03/2008
http://tinyurl.com/22b9zl

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