One of my favorite blogs to keep tabs on is National Parks Traveler. Kurt and Jeremy frankly do the best job of any blog when it comes to covering their subject matter - our national parks. If you don't read it, I encourage you to do so.
I took a virtual hike through NPT tonight and found a story that makes it clear that some people in our federal government simply have too much time on their hands. It seems our intrepid department of Homeland Security thinks that perhaps Osama Bin Laden may be contemplating a move to one of the American national parks. I jest of course, but what other reason would they have for dreaming up the concept of making all of us show a new federal Real ID in order to enter any of our national parks.
This Real ID would contain all of your personal information readable by bar code such as social security numbers; addresses; phone numbers; and, some day according to Jeremy, things like retinal scans for easy identification. I love technology, but I also am a big fan of privacy and this concept is a bit on the big brother side of the equation. Thank goodness there are about 600 organizations lining up against it including the National Association of State Legislatures, the National Governors Association and the National Library Association.
Check my ID when I get on planes, trains and cruise ships but I think we should be able to move freely about the last places in this country that are still the way they were before there was a Stars and Stripes.
Now to end this on a good note, check out this link to a book of Ansel Adams photographs of our national parks. Glance at a few of his incredible images from our parks and the thought of a federal ID program to enter these incredible spaces seems ludicrous.
Nice post. I'm with you. That stuff creeps me out.
On another note, we are so lucky to be close to DC, The Corcoran has an Ansel Adams exhibition through January. I heard it is wonderful.
Posted by: Wendy | Friday, September 21, 2007 at 11:35 AM