What Real ID is Really All About
By Disciple Aaron Bolinger, Venango County, PA
approx 1000 words
For Immediate Release
contact discipleaaron@hotmail.com for more info
(Use and distribution authorized)
With the Real ID Act’s implementation deadlines fast approaching, every state in our union is grappling with the issues around it. Tougher standards for "breeder documents" (birth certificates, Social Security cards, etc.), biometric photography, new computers & software, and high-resolution picture-taking – it seems an endless shopping list for state legislators and motor vehicle departments. All of these things drive the cost of driving and surviving still higher, while profits go to a few select companies.
Well, that is one eye-opener – look where the money is going, and who is profiting from these new "security" features. But much has been said on that already.
Dig deeper. There are as many reasons to be anti-Real ID as there are people fighting it. Some of the more interesting arguments shed light into just what is transpiring at the deepest levels of this fight.
We all know it is a constant struggle to remain free, especially in this "post-911 era." Some people have found answers, however, buried in the legal wrangling that caused many of our liberty-related problems two generations ago.
For example, literally millions of people
no longer pay income tax after discovering that there is NO LAW that actually requires it. Others have discovered that there is likewise NO LAW requiring ANY American to even have a Social Security number.
Those born at home were never issued a birth certificate. Others have cancelled their driver’s licenses after discovering the existence of a basic and fundamental "right to travel" that was so well understood at the time when our Constitutions were written that it was just one of those "other rights" glossed over in the 9
th and 10
th Amendments to the federal constitution.
Those seeking liberty may have paused and realized that any "license" is "permission from government to do something that is otherwise illegal." Is marriage "illegal" outside government sanction? There was no such thing until mixed racial marriages were being sought that churches would not sanction. George Washington never had a state marriage license. Learning this, many have burned their marriage licenses, divorced under state laws, and remarried under biblical law.
Governments gain regulatory power over the products of their licensing. Forced public schooling, drugging children, and "registering" an automobile are all by-products of the nanny state run amok.
Granted, these things are big news to many. I speak with lots of people who simply cannot believe there is a person alive without a birth certificate, social security number, or driver’s license, who is in any way connected to the USA.
Strange as it may seem, these truths are self-evident, if you know where to look. Amish-Mennonite, Christian Science, and other theologies are known for being "separatists." There are more.
Question: what happens when some people understand SOME of these rights, think it prudent to begin applying the tenets of liberty, and then begin tapping into the others?
Answer: Governments get nervous!
After all, many government officials would be out of a job if they couldn’t micromanage elements of our society, and the people within it. With so many dropping off government’s radar, these folks HAD had to create something to keep enough people in the system to justify their jobs.
Enter Real ID.
Real ID is going to make it more and more difficult for these people – freedom loving Americans with the strength of their convictions – to function at all. And it appears that has been the plan from the beginning. Force "birth certificates" to be a "condition of employment." (It is being called "E-Verify.") Tie these data-bases together. Take people who are seeking no government programs (Social Security, welfare, etc.) based on their religion/faith models, and try to FORCE them back into a system they departed.
When we discover that those who profess liberty the loudest are generally also those who have the deepest levels of faith, we see a
spiritual component to this battle against "Real ID." And our state constitutions are VERY STRONG in the way in which they limit government’s ability to
interfere with matters of theology. For example:
"All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences ... no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience, and no preference shall ever be given by law to any religious establishments or modes of worship." (Article 1, Section 3, Constitution of Pennsylvania)
Now, let us presume that SOME faiths see no problem with "Real ID" or "Social Security Numbers" and the like. But some faiths, and individuals who simply disagree with assorted
institutionalized religions and denominations, have MAJOR problems with such things.
Is it not "preference" by law to compel something that violates individual conscience?
Real ID attempts to force the states that comply with it, without granting a "religious exemption," to violate their own constitutional limitations on religion. Conversely, granting a "religious exemption" puts these states in yet a bigger predicament – in that it causes them to create something "by law" that actually prefers one theology over another.
Either way, our state, and every other, is in a real bind with Real ID.
The only SANE and constitutionally safe means of dealing with Real ID is to flat out reject it. Only then can the theologically-inspired constitutional restrictions on which Real ID is targeted be avoided. No one person or faith is given legal standing or preferential treatment over another. The rights and liberties of ALL people are protected on an equal footing. And that is the very purpose of our American governments – protecting the liberties of the individual, with equal justice and opportunities available to all, without sacrifice or persecution on account of faith.
Real ID is real religious persecution. It is foremost a tool to control those people with theological convictions stronger than the state’s. As such, it needs to be dumped.
In Pennsylvania, HB 1351 and SB 1220 are prepared to do just that, but are stuck in committees. Meanwhile, PennDOT charges forward into this really insane federal program. William Penn would be in awe at the arrogance of those sworn to uphold religious liberty via their constitutional oaths of office.