Website link of the day: This MSNBC story Scroll down to the end of the article to see what is being considered as a security measure. Be afraid. Seriously ~ be very afraid.
Well, here it is ~ a little over a week and a half 'after' and things are slowly going back to some sembalance of a routine in the world at large. This has been a rather slow week for me ~ the biggest things of note is that I mowed the yard and that I started a project for a birthday gift. Whoo - hoo, look at me go. (Shall I pour on a little more sarcasm on those pancakes of apathy?)
One frightening thing that is coming out of all the rhetoric in Washington is that people are seriously considering the idea that all people, both citizen and non, should carry an I.D. card that gives personal info as well as tracks where and when that person travels. One way they're considering is the use of 'smart cards' that contain such things as copies of your fingerprints or a sample of DNA.
Excuse me? Isn't that a bit much?
I had heard rumors of this earlier in the week but I thought that was all it was ~ rumors, fueled by the fears and uncertainly that naturally follow such an act as Sept. 11. Now that it's apparently more than a rumor, let's hope that it doesn't get very far in discussion...after all, isn't this the land of the free? Won't this idea hand a victory to whoever committed the terrorism in the first place?
A question was asked on one of the list I am on ~ how far am I willing to go for safety? Am I willing to give up even a little freedom if it means that security is assured?
The answer to the second question ~ I don't think so. About the only thing I can see coming out of it is riots, like the ones where draft cards were burned during the Vietnam war (well ~ one can hope anyway. Drastic change does have a way of clouding the collective judgement sometimes). After all, how would a card prevent anything ~ they didn't see the last incident coming. What makes them think they'll catch the next one, even if everyone has an I.D. card? They way I see it, the people who committed the terrorism learned to think outside the box and we do too. Old tactics are not going to work in this 'New war of the 21st century'. Think of it this way ~ what happened during the American Revolution? The British army was defeated by a bunch of fighters who learned to fight like the native peoples in the area. The tactic of 'walk in formation and fight like civilized people' failed miserably when against the tactic of 'scatter, hide and use anything that works'.
As for what to do about safety ~ I think that we already have a pretty good system, except that we got lazy. We got complacent. We were well fed on the pancakes of apathy (one may even say that we gorged on them). I don't think we need to give anything up ~ just correctly train the people doing the security and keep them trained. It isn't a job on par with flipping burgers at McDonald's yet that seems to be the attitude concerning it, right down to the requirement and pay levels.
I bet that mistake won't be made again...and I hope that I'm just being paranoid. I keep thinking of Fahrenheit 451 and the people in that story who lived out in the wilderness because otherwise they weren't even free enough to read certain books. I hope these I.D. cards aren't the first step on the long path of something similiar.
Gods, I hope I'm just being paranoid.
Page Copyright 2001 D. Firewolf
