No stinking IDs

The trains, they say, ran on time when the Fascists under Benito Mussolini ran Italy. Let that be a lesson to us.

The trains, they say, ran on time when the Fascists under Benito Mussolini ran Italy. Let that be a lesson to us.

Government efficiency is a lot easier under totalitarian rule. By comparison, democracy can be an inefficient way to operate, but it protects our rights.

The springboard for this observation is a proposal by two senators for our nation to issue biometric Social Security cards, using either a fingerprint or a retinal scan to establish without doubt the identity of the holder.

The purpose, sponsors say, is immigration control. Current forms of personal identification — primarily Social Security cards and driver’s licenses — are too easily faked.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.  and Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., propose a card that could be swiped through a reader, like credit cards. Those who refuse to cooperate or who knowingly hire unauthorized workers could face prosecution.

That alarms civil rights advocates, who see it as a step down a dangerous path.

“We think that card would quickly spread to other purposes, from voting to gun ownership to travel,” an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer said. “It will really be a permission slip for participation in American life.”

A universal identification card for Americans has long been bandied about, and so far we have resisted. Such a card eventually almost certainly would have personal information imbedded, and Big Brother government would be upon us.

The balance point between government efficiency and personal liberty is difficult to establish, but the American way is for liberty to prevail.

— The Paris (Tenn.) Post-Intelligencer