BUT REAL AMERICANS DON'T NEED SERIOUS ID CARDS!

Hey, I'm back. Thanks for the posts, Zandar and Bulworth (I especially appreciated the "government is evil intil..." rant), and I'm glad to see you back, Aimai.

I want to follow up on something Zandar posted about the ID proposal in the Democrats' immigration bill:

Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker in the nation to carry a national identification card with biometric information, such as a fingerprint, within the next six years, according to a draft of the measure.

You're absolutely right that this is going to be opposed by the very people who want a police state for anyone who looks more or less like our image of an illegal immigrant -- as I noted last week, the Utah legislator who wants an Arizona-style immigration law in his state, Stephen Sandstrom, is the same guy who led the opposition in Utah to the Real ID Act, which requires technological enhancements to everyone's driver's license.

Is it hypocritical to demand that members of suspect ethnic groups be prepared to show their papers while you oppose more secure ID's for yourself and people like yourself? Sure -- but that's how much of America thinks. Much of America thinks that we don't need to be subjected to that sort of thing because we are obviously "real Americans." We don't need to be scrutinized in airports -- isn't it obvious just by looking at us that we're not terrorists? We shouldn't be subject to background checks at gun shows -- isn't it obvious t6hat we're not dangerous?

And, conversely, why should we have to defer to other people's wishes if we want to lead a Christian prayer at a school function? Isn't the fact that we're Christian just proof that we're the real Americans? Isn't objecting to Christian prayers proof that you aren't?

Too many Americans can't imagine being, say, an American-born person of Mexican descent -- they're not capable, even on an intellectual level, of the kind of empathy that would allow them to truly understand the notion of equal protection under the law. They don't understand not being of the majority religion. They don't understand what's wrong with ethnic profiling. To them, laws should be made keeping in mind that there are two tiers of Americans. Laws absolutely shouldn't be made on the assumption that all of us are equal. Darn it, we just aren't!