Real ID = Reality.

geek · 06-03-05, 07:43 PM

Passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, with no problem at all, the issue of a national ID has become reality. The REAL ID establishes standards for states to give out driver's licenses. Why is everyone making such a big deal about it?

I've read many articles bashing the idea of a national ID, but guess what? We all have one already. Check in your wallet, and most likely you'll find a 1"x3" blue card with a 9-digit number on it. For those of you that don't know, it's your social security card. So it doesn't have your picture, or your address, but your driver's license sure does. The REAL ID will be a "suped up" combination of the two, basically.

Here are a few arguements against the REAL ID act, that we already have.

"Now, you'll have to use your REAL ID to get on a plane, open a bank account, collect Social Security, or any government program"
How is this any different from right now? The only difference I see, is that instead of using two cards (Social Security and your current state driver's license), you'll only need one.

"It's going to have all my information on it! My address, my social security number, everything! That's nobody's business."
Most people have their address and social security number on their driver's license anyway. The only real difference is that you can't use a P.O. Box, which in my opinion, is a good thing. Also, this means that police officers and judges will have their real addresses on their REAL ID.

"I'm an illegal alien, and now I won't be able to get a driver's license!"
Good. Re-read that and tell me what pops out. Illegal? I thought so. Join the list of every other immigrant and take the time to be a legal citizen of this country. If you can't take the time to follow our laws, why should we do anything for you?

"The REAL ID will have machine-readable technology with private information that will be sold to other companies."
That private information will be treated like your social security number. If some company tries selling the information, I'm sure the laws will take care of it. I don't see how this is viewed as a threat by anyone, I'm sure there will be laws implementing rules behind this.

"The REAL ID will be expensive!"
It'll be expensive for the states, but I don't think the cost to get it will be much more than your driver's license. There has been no speculation of a cost-per-card, and there won't be until everything is figured out.

"The government will be able to locate me, and I don't like that.."
If you're so naive to think that the government doesn't have the ability to keep track of where you're at as it is, you need to wake up. Seriously though, the government can track you through your credit card history, bank history, driver's license, or just about anything that you do that requires some interaction with somebody. Just think of how useful this will be in finding criminals and known terrorists.

Overall.. I think that the idea of a REAL ID, or any national ID, won't be any different than what we have now. Instead of carrying around two cards all the time, you'll be able to carry just one. All of the complaints against the REAL ID are already around today, so until you find a real fallacy in the idea of national ID that isn't already around, get over it and let it happen. It's going to happen anyway.

I wrote this today for my "blog" after reading yet another biased article. What are your thoughts ?

flip2 · 06-03-05, 07:49 PM

I'd like to read the REAL ID legislation before I make a judgement. It sounds reasonable, but then there's that question of the federal government intervening in state matters.

geek · 06-03-05, 07:56 PM

theres a link to the bill's information in my post. I guess i need to make it a little more obvious.

<hates when designers don't make links obviously stand out>

Can't go back and edit it. The word's "REAL ID" are linked in the first or second paragraph. Anyway, here's another link: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.00418: