"Let's See Some I.D.!"

I remember when I turned 21 years old, nearly a million years ago! Back then, the big thing was to go into a local tavern and order your first beer. I must admit it was a little unnerving walking in there the very first time. The tavern was called the “Dugout”; it was dark and had a smell that I would later associate with all taverns; cigarettes and stale beer. I sat down on a stool and the bartender walked over and said “What will it be?”, and I replied “Old Style please”; he looked at me and said “I need to see some I.D.”. I reached into my hip pocket and took out my driver’s license and handed it to him. He studied that license like a jeweler looking at the “Hope Diamond”, and then he asked me my name and what my birthday was; I was quick to reply, as I knew the answers! With a half grin, he handed me my license back and drew a beer from the tapper saying “Happy Birthday Joe”; I replied with “Thanks”, and laughed. I put a dollar on the bar, and he said “This one is on the house, the rest you pay for!”

Later in my life I purchased cars, stereos, televisions and homes; every time I made those purchases, I needed to produce some type of identification if I was going to make payments. These seemed to be reasonable requests as the seller wanted to assure that I was who I said I was and was able to verify my ability to pay. When I enlisted in the Army, I also had to produce an I.D. card along with my draft card to verify my identity; even the Army wanted to make sure I was who I said I was.

If you buy something of great value and have it delivered to your home, the delivery receipt will often say “identification required upon receipt”, after all you wouldn’t want some “BOZO” picking up your new computer and driving away with it, would you?

One of the biggest crime problems we now face is “identity theft”, when a thief gets hold of your personal information and steals your money, or uses your name to establish phony accounts and run up bills you are liable to pay. Our identity is precious and we must protect it from “thieves in the night”!

Our current Attorney General, Eric Holder, is suing to stop states from mandating photo I.D. cards which are required for voting in an effort to stem vote fraud during elections. Mr. Holder seems to feel these laws would put some type of undue hardship on young people, seniors and minorities. Personally, I believe producing identification to vote is a good thing; few things in America are as precious as our citizen’s right to vote, and we should be protected from those who attempt to steal that franchise. After all, if we can throw away 528 million dollars on SOLYNDRA, we can certainly afford a few bucks for federal identification cards to secure our election system.

If Mr. Holder really wants to make our polls a better place, perhaps he may want to discourage some of that voter intimidation he overlooked in the last election from lunatic fringe groups, instead of complaining about a law that sounds like good common sense to every “legal” American!