by James Glaser
February 21, 2005

With new legislation passed in HR 418, Congress is establishing a national ID card by mandating that all States include certain minimum identification standards on Driver's licenses.

Republican Representative Ron Paul, is from Texas and has been warning the nation about these national ID cards. Congressman Paul writes, "The US House of Representatives passed a national ID bill last week that masqueraded as "immigration reform." The bill does nothing to address immigration policy, however , nor does it propose deporting a single illegal alien already in our country, It does nothing to address the porous border between the US and Mexico, which is the fundamental problem. In reality, the bill is a Trojan horse. It pretends to offer desperately needed border control in order to con a credulous Congress into sacrificing more of our constitutionally protected liberty."

Those who want this bill claim the national ID is voluntary, but if a state opts out its citizens will be unable to have any dealings with the federal government because their ID will not be accepted. According to Congressman Paul, they won't be able to fly or take a train. He says that "it is just a matter of time until those who refuse to carry the new licenses will be denied the ability to drive or board an airplane."

Remember those old WW II movies where the Gestapo officer in the long black coat asks, "May I see your papers?" That could be us in a not too distant future.

Now I am not saying we are going the way of Nazi Germany or that George Bush is the second coming of Adolph Hitler, but I am saying that there were Germans after the war, who said they felt real bad that they did nothing to stand up to Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Here in America if a person stands up and says George Bush is wrong, he is branded as someone soft on terrorism and less patriotic than he of she should be, but Washington is not killing those people yet, but it looks like they are making laws so that those that question, can be put in a cell, with no right to a trial, or even legal counsel.

After I was discharged from the Marine Corps, I could travel all over this country with no ID card and I could get on a plane, ride a bus, or take a train. They wanted the money for the ticket, but they didn't care who I was. Now they do, and you better have identification or they might just arrest you. Today we are less free than we were just a decade ago.

Washington wants more control over our lives and control means power. People tell me they have to do this because of terrorism and I ask, why there is terrorism? They tell me, because there are people who hate our freedom. So you and I are now giving up some of our freedom to protect us from people, who our government says are trying to destroy our freedom. That makes no sense to me at all.

We are on a slippery slope and as we start to fall toward totalitarianism, the new laws that will control us will come faster and faster, so we have to speak up now or our chance will be lost.

Right now George Bush is trying to get control of the Middle East with his push to bring those people "freedom and democracy." Sad to say this, but those fighting our troops in Iraq are giving us time to figure out what is going on here at home. This ID card is just one step in getting better control of us. If Bush ever does get control of Iraq, he will then turn around and start working on taking our freedom full time.

If you ever did want to speak up, now is the time, because like those people in Germany, if you wait too long, you might lose the chance to say anything and then it will be too late and our freedom will be gone.