Reader Notes

Re: National ID Card System Failing to Attract Supporters -- L.A. Times - 10.24.01

Joseph Menn, in an article, "National ID Card System Failing to Attract Support," states that civil liberties and conservatives are in opposition. They fail to recognize that a security card, backed by a national database, would protect individual identity, by replacing the fifty different state driver's licenses as an identity card. These cards are easily counterfeited, as they are not backed by a national database. Many states allow illegal immigrants to legally obtain driver's licenses. A national card need contain no sensitive information, as current credit cards do. They should have information that would make it easy to identify those wanted by law enforcement organizations, which would be flagged when submitted to a national database. By protecting Americans from criminals and terrorists, a national identity card should only be feared by those who commit crimes.

Byron S.