Oppressing Freedom IS Fascism

Stardate 4944.8

"Those who would trade temporary security for essential freedom will soon have neither." - Ben Franklin

I was reading through Crooks and Liars and I came across the post about Deborah Davis. I read the bit on their page, and continued on to the site. As I read more and more of the story, I knew I had to tell others about this incident.

First of all, this woman did absolutely nothing wrong. In fact, the last time I checked, it is not a law that you have to carry ID on your person on a day to day basis at all. After all, if you go to the beach in a swimsuit there is nowhere to carry it anyways... Jokes aside, this woman was commuting to work as usual, and when a security guard boarded the public transit bus demanding to see IDs, she complied. The first time. After thinking about it, she decided she would not comply any more, and rightfully so. I would have done the same thing. The next time, when a security guard boarded the public transit bus and demanded IDs, she said she had one, but refused to show him. In the end, two Federal policemen arrested her and now she faces charges. All for trying to get to work on a public transit bus.

The site above really gets to the nitty gritty about this, but I can perhaps paraphrase a little. The checks for IDs are in no way increasing security. The guards were not checking a list of terrorists bad guys against the IDs, they were simply making normal folks comply. You see, normal folks have nothing to hide, so compliance should be a given. The problem arises when terrorists bad guys get fake IDs... you know, like the one's high school kids get to go to girlie bars, and buy smokes... Of course, they will comply. That is also a given. So does it work?

This is one of the freedoms that the US stands for (I forget I should not be telling Americans what they stand for even though the saying is "Liberty and Freedom for all") and in fact, all democratic and free countries stand for but it is being very quickly eradicated under the guise of Patriotism as fascism. Citizens and normal folk are no longer free to walk the streets without fear of forces demanding papers...

I wonder how many more essential freedoms and basic human rights will be removed before the rest of the Nation wakes up and says enough is enough. The population is being controlled by fear disguised again, as Patriotism. Citizens who oppose the war are unpatriotic. Citizens who question the government are unpatriotic. Citizens who do not show their papers are unpatriotic...

I don't think I need to continue.