Life Or Death?

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Josh Margolis

Prof. Greg Barraza

English 1b

23 March 2007

Life or Death?

On September 11th of 2001, a terrible tragedy occurred in New York City which devastated the United States tremendously, when two commercial passenger airplanes flew right into the World Trade Center sending the two monumental towers crumbling to the ground. This travesty killed more than 3000 people and put the United States instantly on high alert for more terrorism attacks to come. How did this happen? It simply happened because Iraqi terrorists trained for this and only needed a photo ID to get onto those two planes. Alan Dershowitz might argue this point by stating "a simple ID card with your photo and name on it?" taking the other side of things, William Safire would respond," having more personal information on a card than you even know about yourself is in violation of the fourth amendment of the constitution." These two brilliant political analysts, Alan Dershowitz and William Safire share views on the same topic but on completely different sides. We will take a look and go in depth on both sides of Alan's, "Why Fear National ID Cards?" and Williams, "The Threat of National ID".

The fourth amendment states "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, house, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by other or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." This is the basis of Williams's argument against national ID cards.

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In this case if the government decides to go along with the ID cards then it is the government that will abuse this new standard to the people. It will not just be a card like a driver licenses, everything will be on their such as, medical record information, police and criminal files, bank statements, finger prints etc. for this type of safety is going way beyond the fourth amendment and literally putting every single data information about a person onto a card and infringes on the persons privacy. I think it is a violation on an individual's privacy that would be scanned and looked at by a minimum wage security cop, and to be looked at for no reason at all. The real advantage to the national ID card would be able to get a person through an airport line a lot fast and efficient.

Alan