by Fred Tolleson

Created on: January 12, 2008   Last Updated: March 19, 2008

"Should Photo Identification be required to vote?" Absolutely! You must now have a Passport to travel on a cruise ship to Alaska. When you get married you have to prove who you are with birth certificates. When you die, your estate administrator must supply copies of your death certificate in order to close your estate!

The primary reasons most folks don't want to have a National Identification Card are issues surrounding invasion of privacy and foreigners in our country illegally who don't want to leave.

For those who fear "invasion of privacy" please understand that the age of privacy has come and gone years ago. If you doubt this, go sit at a computer with Internet and put your own name in the Google search engine. For the next 30 minutes (or more) you can sit there and read with amazing detail all about yourself. Traffic tickets, court records, addresses, name changes, are all laid bare for the searcher willing to take the time to look. Privacy died a quiet death when county after county, city after city, laid bare their public records and put them on the Internet in compliance with public access laws.

In todays world, you should be able to prove who you are with the display of a document that is uniquely you. This document should establish who you are for all personal, business and governmental reasons. It should be as recognizable to a Meter Maid in New York City as it would be to a Texas Ranger or a Canadian Mounty or whatever Mexico has! No more should a person be detained for lack of identification while authorities fumble to identify who they really are! I think the "invasion of privacy" crowd would be demanding a single document like this National Identification Card to settle once and for all, who everybody is!

The thorny side of this issue are the millions of foreigners in this country illegally! They simply do not want to give up the good life and move back home. Most have settled into the community, bought homes, established themselves as good citizens and live under the radar - virtually undetectable. We will have illegal aliens among us until we determine who are the real citizens and who are not. The labor force issues offered by the Latinos is a valid point. They fill huge gap in our work force and have for many generations - they deserve some consideration for their argument. Russians who traveled from Russia to China, to South America and finally trekked up thru Mexico to join relatives in the USA get a gold star for effort. The many other nationalities have various arguments for their continued residence in the country. All these arguments pale when once simple question is asked: "Are you a citizen?"

If you visit other countries, the majority have rules for citizenship that make ours pale by comparison. You must learn their language, convert your finances and many other basic items. You don't get "our language" as a second language, you must prove proficiency in their language. The loss of our basic rights guaranteed by the constitution is the largest loss. Many countries have made gestures in this direction, but only a few have meaningful protections for citizens rights.

If you are not a citizen, or are in this country legally for some reason there is no issue. For all others you must either be a citizen or not be allowed to vote. Or not be allowed to stay!

Learn more about this author, Fred Tolleson.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.