Burn Your License
Thanks to Mary Lou Seymour of Rational Review News for pointing this one (and several others) out to me: Burn Your License. Author Annalee Newitz starts out strong and just keeps rolling:
"During the Vietnam War, people protested the draft and U.S. policy in Vietnam by burning draft cards. It was a symbolic gesture -- a way of refusing to be counted as a citizen willing to fight a morally dubious battle, a way to avoid becoming a statistic in the graveyards of the cold war.
"As of last week, we have a new card to burn. I'm talking about the new driver's licenses and ID cards ushered into existence by the passage of Rep. James Sensenbrenner's Real ID Act, which zoomed through the House and Senate without debate by piggybacking on an appropriations bill."
A great activism idea, with a fine American tradition behind it too!
"During the Vietnam War, people protested the draft and U.S. policy in Vietnam by burning draft cards. It was a symbolic gesture -- a way of refusing to be counted as a citizen willing to fight a morally dubious battle, a way to avoid becoming a statistic in the graveyards of the cold war.
"As of last week, we have a new card to burn. I'm talking about the new driver's licenses and ID cards ushered into existence by the passage of Rep. James Sensenbrenner's Real ID Act, which zoomed through the House and Senate without debate by piggybacking on an appropriations bill."
A great activism idea, with a fine American tradition behind it too!
posted by Sunni at 10:20 AM
3 Comments:
my "license" expires this fall. if i do get a new permission slip (not sure yet), it will be my last (quite sure).
i think burning it though would give too much power to something that's ultimately worth no more attention than the snot-stained tissue we toss in the trash without another thought. i'm cool with others doing it, but i'm going to let it die with as little attention as i can not muster.
so what will you tell the pigs when they pull you for doing 80 in a 35? "I burned it ... huh huh uhuh... to protest ..."
Stupid.
Do something un-stupid: write your congresscritter ... lobby ... etc.
Well, I would hope that someone who burned his or her ID wouldn't be stupid enough to drive 80 in a 35. I remember seeing guys burning their draft cards during the Vietnam war -- it made a big impression on me. And I'm sure I'm not alone in that. Such public demonstrations against politicians' actions make an impression on them, too. As such, I can't call that kind of activism stupid.
Writing congressvermin, educating people in your area about the thoroughly unAmerican Real ID Act (and how it got passed), and organizing protests are all good means of activism.
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