Letter: National ID a good idea in principle

Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2007 | 7:04 a.m.

I'm in favor of the basic principles of the Real ID Act, scheduled to go into effect in May 2008, but the implementation is a fiasco.

Every person living in the United States over the age of 18 should have a national ID card or a national driver's license. The cards should include citizen or immigrant status, and be issued and administered by the federal government - not 50 different Departments of Motor Vehicles.

Since the cards would be national in nature, this should preclude state-specific information such as gun ownership, etc. Information of this type should be on a separate card, and administered by an individual state.

As a citizen of this country, I would be just as proud to be in possession of a national ID card or national driver's license as I am of my U.S. passport. I do not understand privacy advocates' objections to a national ID card.

In the computer and video-camera world we live in today, there isn't a lot of privacy - and there is going to be even less. If you are in this country legally and obey the laws, why would you object to a card that validates your status, especially when such a card would improve the security of our country?

Roger Witcher, Las Vegas

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