Member's Corner: Spike Haired Grandma (Cheryl Switzer)

A National ID Card For American Citizens?
Get Ready – The Real ID Act Goes Into Effect On May 11


For a moment, imagine a future where you are not able to drive a car, get on a plane, get on a train, vote, enter a federal building, open a bank account or get a job without a national ID card. You don't think that could ever happen in America? Well, you might want to brush up on the Real ID Act because it is going to go into effect on May 11, 2011 unless something is done to stop it.

When I first learned this, I was absolutely stunned. After all, wasn't the Real ID Act supposed to be "dead"? A few years ago state legislatures across the nation were in an uproar over this law. The Department of Homeland Security was forced to delay implementation of it several times. But now it is back. You see, this is what the federal government often does. They will try to push something very unpopular through, and if they meet resistance they will "play dead" until the uproar has died down and then they will come right back and implement it anyway. This is what is happening with the Real ID Act.

As of May 11, all driver's licenses across the United States will be required to conform to federal national security standards. In essence, our licenses are now going to be federalized.

Yes, this is really happening. A Fox News article from a couple weeks ago confirmed that these "national ID cards" will be required to board airplanes and enter federal buildings....

States must be in compliance by May with the regulations laid out in the 2005 REAL ID Act. The law, a recommendation of the Sept. 11 commission that investigated the 2001 terror attacks, creates a national security standard for state-issued identification cards to be used for purposes like boarding airplanes and entering federal buildings.

Isn't that great?

Now security goons will be able to ask us for our "papers" just like they used to do in Nazi Germany and the USSR.

Back in 2008, former U.S. Representative Bob Barr wrote the following about how not having one of these new national ID cards will automatically strip us of some of our most fundamental rights....

"A person not possessing a Real ID Act-compliant identification card could not enter any federal building, or an office of his or her congressman or senator or the U.S. Capitol. This effectively denies that person their fundamental rights to assembly and to petition the government as guaranteed in the First Amendment."

Of course the Department of Homeland Security insists that the Real ID Act is just here to "help" us and to make life "better" and "more secure". According to their website, some of the goals of the Real ID Act are "to help prevent terrorism, reduce fraud, and improve the reliability and accuracy of personal identification documents."

But is this really what we want America to become?

A nation where we are constantly passing through checkpoints and where security goons are constantly checking our national ID card?

What kind of liberty and freedom is that?

Eventually these national ID cards will likely be required for virtually every single interaction that we have with the federal government.

Can you imagine the kind of power that the federal government will have to watch us and track our activities if this thing gets fully implemented?

The more you really think about the notion of a national ID card for Americans the more repulsive it becomes.

Eventually, without a "Real ID" you will not be able to be hired by most employers. So in essence, you will be required to get the permission of the federal government before you can work.

Without a "Real ID", your ability to travel will be greatly restricted. Eventually there will be very few modes of public transportation that you will be able to use without having a national ID card.

And what if you lose your national ID card? Talk about a headache!

Hey, eventually they might just decide to solve that problem by putting a microchip directly into our hands.

Wouldn't that be convenient?

Can you see where all of this is headed? Many of the people that are attempting to implement this thing may have "good intentions", but we all know what they say about "good intentions".

We do not need a national ID card to have a nation that is safe and secure.

Please contact your representatives in Washington D.C. and let them know that you want the Real ID Act repealed once and for all.

If we put up with a national ID card, then the Obama administration will be emboldened to try to implement the "universal Internet ID" that they have been talking about.

The sad truth is that America is no longer "the land of the free". The government has decided that in order to keep us "safe", everything that we do must be watched, tracked, traced, recorded and controlled.

It doesn't matter whether the Democrats are in power or if the Republicans are in power - every year the United States becomes even more like a prison camp.

Hopefully the American people will wake up and will realize that this is not what our founding fathers intended.

Cheryl Switzer


Related Articles: 
Florida's Implementation of the Federal Real ID Act of 2005

States Revise Rules on Driver's Licenses for Illegal Immigrants as National ID Approaches