Gentle Spiders,
I've been e-chatting, off-list, on the subject of what governments know
(if they want to), what info is out there for the asking, how having
uniform ID cards is more paranoid hoopla than fact, and remembered a
couple of more instances...
1) Poland was very offended - on behalf of the American citizens of
colour - when the driver's licences began to use a colour photo.
According to the Polish press of that time, that was done because it
was no longer permitted to put race/colour on it. Of course, our own
little booklets (about half the size of a passport, but a booklet
nevertheless. Into which the current address was stamped, much like a
visa) had the photos in bw (and twice the size). But then, our
colour-photo technology was in the swaddling clothes as the saying
went...
2) I had to apply for a Social Security number, having arrived in US as
an adult. But, when my son was born - February of '77 - he was was
issued one the day after he was born; it was normal procedure by the.
And what's a SS number if not an ID number? For that matter, a license
plate tracks you too.
3) But, when I said the government seemed to have all the data on him
except spit, when they wanted to check, I forgot the *best part*. 24
hrs after he was born, he was both finger- and foot-printed. Took some
effort, in case of the fingers (try to uncurl those little claws g),
but it was done, and the data was going to be kept somewhere.
Ostensibly so that, in case of a kidnap, he could be identified -
either as an adult some years later, or as a corpse left in a ditch
somewhere.
Nobody asked my (or his g) permission to harvest the data, though I
was presented with copies of same for free. I meant to paste them into
his baby book, but that was when I meant to make a baby book, and
they've disappeared since. From *my* stash. But, from the government's?
I doubt it. That organism never disgorges; it only adds (though
sometimes, it does mislay stuff).
Of course, *my* fingerprints are on file, from the time I applied for
the citizenship...
ID cards will be an infringement on our privacy? WHAT PRIVACY?
---
Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line:
unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
