July 07 2008
Why YES for a National ID Card
Okay, so many of my closest friends, colleagues et al, reading only that headline would deny it came from me. I can hear David now, ” … there’s no way that Demo-lib-tree-hugging-pacifist Rob Mineo would say ‘Yes’ to a National ID Card!” However, if Hurricane Katrine forever blemished my view of the current presidential administration, it forever swayed my view for the need of a National ID Card.
As I joined hundreds of millions of world-wide citizens looking on in horror at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, feeling hopeless to do anything except give what we could to the Red Cross, I became convinced that a National ID Card would have greatly aided the thousands of families left wondering about their loved ones. As people entered into the stadium, other shelters, or even other cities, FEMA representatives or local officials could have easily tracked our fellow citizens’ well-being and whereabouts as necessary under the circumstances. Imagine walking into an American Red Cross shelter, swiping your ID card, no different than you swipe a card at the airport to prove identity, and immediately being put into a database showing your location (New Orleans, Houston, etc.). That same information also acts, unfortunately, as a list of who may yet not be accounted for or found as of yet.






