“One of the many reasons for the bewildering and tragic character of human existence is the fact that social organization is at once necessary and fatal. Men are forever creating such organizations for their own convenience and forever finding themselves the victims of their home-made monsters.”
– Aldous Huxley
For most Americans the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (or “Witty” as it is called by wonkers) has, ironically, flown under the radar.
This provision of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, scheduled to take effect early next year, will require all of us to present either a passport or “valid travel document” to cross any national border – including the one with Canada.
Needless to say, this impeding, massive inconvenience to the 58,000 people who cross between Michigan and Ontario every day – not to mention the impediment to the $1.2 billion in trade they have with them – has caused substantial alarm among commercial interests and political leaders on both sides of the border.
Michigan Secretary of State, Terri Lynn Land, has made the practical proposal that we simply modify our state-issued drivers licenses to make them WHTI-compliant. Of course, doing so will remain problematic until Department of Homeland Security officials actually specify the requirements.
However, three states, Arizona, Washington and Vermont, have received individual, DHS approval to launch “pilot projects.” In all cases the dual-purpose drivers licenses incorporate an RFID chip – a tiny, low-power, remotely-activated radio that will transmit data up to 10 meters (about 33 feet.)
The reason for this feature is to make the ID also comport with Directive 9303 of the International Civil Aviation Organization. If you don’t recall having seen the ICAO in the bowl of federal, alphabet soup, it’s because it is an agency of the United Nations.
The RFID chip requirement is part of newly mandated international passport standards. Those of you who got a passport in the last year will find a small, circle-in-a-rectangle logo on the front indicating that you are among the radio-tagged.
Incorporating similar technology into everyone’s drivers license would be the ultimate in speed, efficiency and convenience.
A simple, inexpensive radio transponder placed alongside the road will be able to briefly activate the chip to receive and record the identity, location, date and time of everyone in your car, even as you drive by on your way to the customs booth.
In fact, why limit this time-saver to international borders?
Such receivers could ultimately be set up in thousands, even millions, of locations – verifying your identity and vital statistics, thereby speeding up service everywhere from airport queues and roadside speed-traps to library checkouts and college bars.
All of your comings and goings could be continuously monitored and recorded. It will be so convenient – and undetectable – that you won’t even know when, where or how often.
Inevitably, some liberal, soft-on-terrorism types might raise a fuss for a while – wringing their hands and whining about their “right to privacy.”
But as law-and-order conservatives have long observed, the Constitution does not specifically mention any right to privacy. In any case, before you know it, ignorance, complacency and the overarching desire for speed and convenience among the general public will prevail.
And if you think you are too vigilant to be tricked into carrying the “Mark of the Beast,” here is a little challenge for you.
Take out your vehicle registration and read the fine print on the back – right above where you signed your name – noting, particularly, the phrase: “this commercial vehicle.”
Now, the reason the state wants you to declare that you might wish to allow use of your vehicle for commercial purposes is understandable. Strictly personal travel on public roads is a fundamental right. And, of course, one needs no license from the government to exercise a right. Our republic was founded on the formal declaration that these are natural and unalienable. It is only using the public roads for commercial purposes that is a revocable “privilege” for which a license can be required.
But why did you go along and reserve the option to use your personal vehicle for commercial purposes? In fact, did even notice that you were making such a statement before signing your name to it?
Well, soon you can put a radio-tagged drivers license in your wallet right next to that commercial vehicle certificate.
Welcome to the braver, newer world, Citizen of the United Nations!
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More on privacy:
- Real identity crisis
- No census con
- Sex and the single-minded state
- Finding middle ground on abortion
And then there’s:
