Dec. 31, 2001 - 16:21 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

High Hopes

From what I read and hear, the idea of us being made to carry a Nationwide ID card is still being pushed. Phew, wonder how often we will have to have our photo on that updated?

How soon will this be one of those newfangled "Smart Cards?" one of those tiny cards that can tell your entire stats and personal history to any one who has access to card readers.

Criminy, it is bad enough having one's identity stolen by the use of one's Social Security number, which by the way was never meant to be used as an identification . . . . . Suppose a person would lose his National ID card? His identity will then belong to the finder? Oh yes, I see, they will probably come up with a scare tactic to frighten people into wishing to have a little identity device planted under their skin and probably the little device will be able to be used to track your location 24/7.

How long will it be before every TV set will have the equivalent of a webcam watching the watchers? And will there be one in your bedroom and bathroom as well as in the garage and workshop? Probably the cost of those things will come out of our pockets as a Federal Users fee.

Paranoia ? Maybe. Maybe just being a realistic existentialist. I cannot see any advantage to a person to have all that crap hung around his neck, in his wallet or under his skin.

Finally in our state they no longer print your Social Security number on our driver's licenses. I see that now there is a black magnetic strip on the back of mine. I suppose that now machines will be in cop's cars to swipe our licenses through. What kind of information is on that strip? Do they have any right to do that? I do not intend to break any law or stir up physical revolt against our government, but I will express my opinion against my loss of privacy and the possiblity of having to be pushed up against a wall while my ID card is swiped through the machine.

I am not the only person to have feelings similar to those I just expressed. Just recently Willian Safire of the New York Times wrote a column titled, "Fear is a poor excuse to reqire universal ID."

So, here we are on the threshold of a brand new year. Can we pray that no entity will tarnish this possibly beautiful bright new year with the blood of innocents? I certainly intend to pray that way.

Wouldn't it be just grand if we could regain the implicit faith we once had in the integrity of man and his governments. Wouldn't it also be wonderful if we could time travel and raise kids as they should have been in the first place? I plead, "Mea Culpa," just as many of us should. I can look back down the corridors of time and see some of the mistakes I made in passing and how avoiding them would have made better people of our children. They are good now of course and I am proud of them for what they have become. But if I had done things right they would very probably be of much more use in service to mankind than they are now.

Survival is a high priority but I think helping others survive is something that one can be led to by example. Case in point, Jimmy Carter and Habitat For Humanity which is devoted to selfless help to others. Things like that are not just throwing money at something hoping the problem will go away but putting one's own manpower and personal time and sweat into it.

I hope and pray that this new year ahead of us will see the birth of more Mother Teresa's, more Albert Schweitzers, more selfless researchers hoping to solve the physical problems which are proliferating in a logarithmic mode now. I shall even pray for and wish for our government to have more people concerned with the welfare of our whole country instead of a constituency. There are so many ways we can help, so many things we can do to help people out of misery and privation.

Of these things I wish for maybe some will be accomplished at least I have High Hopes . . . . . . .

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