Reference Publications

Noninvasive ID cards - Letters to the editor

Humanist, May-June, 2002 by Jeanne Hsu

In "Stop and Show Your Papers!" (March/April 2002), Barbara Dority expresses her worries over proposed national identification cards. As she describes the possible (and planned) uses, it sounds pretty scary indeed; she quite reasonably fears for our civil liberties.

However, even though this is probably the wrong time to establish ID cards, the fact is that for a long time we have needed some document to help each of us prove our identity. Right now we have to make do with a driver's license (not necessarily truthful) if we drive, a phone number, or some other means when we need to cash a check or cast a vote.

Perhaps a glimpse at the situation in a country that uses ID cards will clarify a few things. I lived twenty-three years of my life in Belgium where ID cards, delivered by the municipal government of the town one lives in, are compulsory. I can assure you that they are very convenient; they don't give the police the right to stop you without reason, anymore than your driver's license does; and they don't contain information about your religion, race, or political affiliation anymore than your passport does. It would be hard to see how these innocuous cards could permit "control of the threat of terrorists or insurgents, facilitate religious discrimination, enforce quota systems, and allow for social engineering." ID cards only contain name, address, date of birth, and photo.

Besides, for quota systems and social engineering, the United States managed very well without ID cards earlier in the twentieth century