There is a meme, probably it would be considered a "conservative" or "alt-right" one that goes around Facebook from time to time that lists all the things for which we must provide identification. It is a long list. The only thing that we are told should not, must not, require identification is one of the most critical and personal things, one that deals with personal, community and national security, voting. This is because asking some of our citizens or groups to obtain identification is voter suppression. This is the one thing apparently for which some of People of America are incapable of providing verification of their identity.
What made me think of this today? I decided, that though I have a passport, I should get the Real ID before the following reality becomes unremitting law. Here it is.
Starting October 1, 2021, every state and territory resident will need to present a REAL ID compliant license/ID, or another acceptable form of identification, for accessing federal facilities, entering nuclear power plants, and boarding commercial aircraft.
If you don't plan on driving everywhere in the Continental United States, or Hawaii or Puerto Rico or Guam you either are going to need a passport or one of the following items to visit the far flung relatives or one of the following:
- Driver's licenses or other state photo identity cards issued by Department of Motor Vehicles
- (or equivalent)Beginning Oct. 1, 2021, if you plan to use your state-issued ID or license to fly within
- the U.S., make sure it is REAL ID compliant. If you are not sure if your ID complies with REAL ID,
- check with your state department of motor vehicles.
- U.S. passport
- U.S. passport card
- DHS trusted traveler cards (Global Entry, NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST)
- U.S. Department of Defense ID, including IDs issued to dependents
- Permanent resident card
- Border crossing card
- State-issued Enhanced Driver’s License
- Federally recognized, tribal-issued photo ID
- HSPD-12 PIV card
- Foreign government-issued passport
- Canadian provincial driver's license or Indian and Northern Affairs Canada card
- Transportation worker identification credential
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Employment Authorization Card (I-766)
- U.S. Merchant Mariner Credential
- Veteran Health Identification Card (VHIC)
In coordination with its DHS counterparts, TSA has identified acceptable alternate identification for use in
special circumstances at the checkpoint.
A weapon permit is not an acceptable form of identification. A temporary driver's license is not an
acceptable form of identification.
I assume that the same people who are unable to get identification to vote, many of which above would be sufficient to show that they indeed have the RIGHT to vote, will be unable to fly or enter public buildings after October 2021. If it is impossible and unfair to ask them for identification to vote, it is impossible and unfair to ask them to get Identification to fly or enter federal buildings. Logic would dictate that this, and any other form of identification requirement, if a suppression of rights for voting is also a suppression of right to engage in interstate travel. It is also unfair and perhaps even discrimination by a private business to ask for identification to ask for identification for anyone buying, say, liquor. If I, clearly an elderly plump woman announce to my local liquor store well over the age of 21, announced to the clerk that I don't have identification, that I cannot be discriminated against for lack thereof, they would no doubt throw me out, but isn't that a discriminatory practice against a person who has no identification?
Are you really going to tell me that there are an abundance of CITIZENS who do not have identification for the multitude of ORDINARY things for which it is required, like getting electricity for the home, or other services of daily life? As one article I found said, ID, actually even photo ID is required for nearly EVERYTHING in our lives.
https://www.wbfj.fm/fact-photo-id-required-almost-everything-life/
Nothing I am saying here is new. It is insulting and demeaning to the people who are told they are so inept or so in need of the paternalism of politicians that they can't go out and get for VOTING what is needed everywhere else. Ot that many of them haven't presented ID for those lesser things on the lists of everyday requirements to prove yourself. So, here's a recent example. . . . .to go into a hospital these days for visits in the year of Covid, you have to show identification and get a badge. How can a hospital deny the same people who can't produce identification to vote a visit to mother or father because they don't have identification to get inside during the pandemic?
The fact that something is hard to do is also not a reason to say, "Oh you don't have to do it." I can tell you, trying to get a Real ID, using the system on line and THEN having to go to DMV anyway, is hard. And it IS a tracking device. for every group and individual in the nation. And unlike showing ID for the right to vote, one might argue that REAL ID is truly an invasion of rights. People have so argued. But apparently it is happening.
https://www.dhs.gov/real-id/real-id-faqs
Clearly that is the logic behind requiring ID to fly. It is a matter of safety, security, that very thing for which all this year we have been told requires us to do a variety of unpleasant and difficult things. It is a matter of logic and safety and security and fairness for ALL that we ALL provide proof of WHO WE ARE when we vote. Would it be ok with you if I walked into the bank, said I was you, and got your money? We call that ID theft. When someone who isn't entitled to vote, does so, they take away other people's rights as citizens. Does that matter?
The inconsistency over what is fair or unfair, easy or hard is so manifest it is hard not to spit in frustration over it. But don't worry, given all the things that are happening in this country, just like it happened in so many other places, voting won't matter any longer. We will have transformed ourselves into yet another dead civilization.
And so it goes in this best of all possible worlds in the hands of human beings.
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