Papers, identity, and the English language
This Tech Talk column originally appeared in The Exponent (University of Alabama in Huntsville), Vol. 33, No. 27 (April 11, 2002). Digitized issue: UAH LOUIS archive. Reproduced here courtesy of that archive.
The English language is on the way to borrowing the following sentence from German: Zeigen Sie Ihre Papiere, Kameraden!
If you don’t read German—although that’s not a good excuse with Babel Fish (babelfish.altavista.com)—or haven’t learned much about World War II history, then this reference will be opaque. “Zeigen Sie Ihre Papiere, Kameraden!” was the demand of jackbooted Nazi storm troopers, used especially to harass someone with the appearance of being dissident. The sentence translates to “Show your papers, Comrade”, and referred to identification papers that folks in Germany under the Third Reich kept with them at all times for fear of being locked away in some SS prison. Don’t leave home without it.
Today in America, our driver licenses are our Papiere, but we don’t see this truth because we think we simply have a tremendous level of convenience. Want to open a bank account? Write a check? Withdraw money from your account? Sip cold, tasty beer? Drive down the street without committing a crime? Purchase a firearm? Carry a firearm? Board an airplane? Get a job? Sort out trouble with your account or academic record with the University? Try engaging in any of these “subversive” activities, and you may be asked to present your papers, Comrade.
The ninth and tenth amendments to the US Constitution constrain the power of the federal government, and our honorable politicians don’t seem to like that (Don’t know your civil rights? Shame on you! The ninth amendment reads, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” The tenth reads, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”) To get around the Constitution (and despite taking oaths to defend and uphold this important document) the federal government plays extortion games.
According to Alabama Tax Watch (alabamataxwatch.homestead.com), more than thirty percent of the average Alabamian’s income goes to paying off the government, i.e., taxation. The government sucks wealth out of our economy (which is a lot like sucking the oil out of a running engine) and then holds it over our heads. With driver licenses, the federal government is strong-arming state DMVs to collect Social Security numbers with applications for licenses, even though driving has nothing to do with the administration of the federal government’s Ponzi insurance scheme.
If you know even a little about database design, this aggression of tracking information is chilling. If you hear database weenies talking about a “primary key,” that means some unique identifier. Even though Social Security numbers aren’t technically unique they may as well be. Slowly by slowly, every aspect of your life is being tied to your Federal Citizen ID Number (aka your SSN), and this is probably the greatest unintended consequence on FDR’s plunderous disaster. Even though you’re a decent, peaceful, law-abiding citizen, you’re being watched under the assumption that you’re guilty until proven innocent. ‘This is America,’ you’re thinking, ‘where stuff like that doesn’t happen.’ Are you sure? Our police forces have been reduced to mobile tax units. The conflicts of interest in law enforcement are staggering. Enforcing traffic regulations is not about public safety but revenue generation. Of the militarization of police forces due to the insane war on drugs (also known as the War on the Civil Liberties of Americans), Tim McVeigh wrote from Terra Haute in a letter to Soldier of Fortune, “While it may be gung-ho macho to strap on an assault rig and kick in a door, is this really the America you want to live in?” Evidently, McVeigh did not want to live in such an America, but do you?