64

First of all, Happy Birthday Amanda! 26 years young. I hope you have a great day.

Identity issues are on my mind this week. There's a company out there that offers air travellers the opportunity to submit personal information to be held on file so they can receive automatic clearance through security at the airports that join this service. Unfortunately I forget what it is called but just as well I didn't waste brain cells on it because the company went under and so did this expedited service to airline passengers. These people paid some annual fee, submitted personal information for clearance so that they wouldn't have to stand in line and pretend that it's a pleasant social experience to board an airplane.

The company goes under. Now what happens to this information? In the name of preventing identity theft and threats to national security and safety, the public is being asked (required) to submit more and more personal information. And by "more and more" I mean more personal as well as more in quantity. That information is now available all collected up nicely together for someone smarter than I am to obtain in one fell swoop rather than really working hard to collect it up.

Newly posted signs in my doctor's office states they plan to take pictures of patients in order to protect against identity theft (!?). Additional and more highly personal information being sought in the name of protecting my identity. I promise I will not sue my doctor's office if my identity is stolen because my picture is not in the file in their offices.

Ryan got a 64 on his Chemistry Regents (our kingdom for one point) and the information required by July 1 for him to re-take this Regents on our very own campus in 6 weeks includes: date of birth, doctor's phone number; dentist's name and phone number; our family setup (foster, single parent, the ubiquitous "other"); mumps, psychiatric condition and ear infections; field trip and media release for pictures to the newspaper; (yes, I'm still registering him to take a single Regents exam in his own school) AND his social security number --which I refused to supply. Front and back of a form--there was more I can't really remember.

Jim can't find his social security card and BOCES needs it so he can teach summer enrichment. To get a replacement card, he fills out a single sided form and shows his drivers license. That's it. To replace his social security card.

Something is all backwards here. To "protect" against identity theft and terrorism we are required to submit increasingly personal pieces of information to a supposedly trustworthy authority invisible to us (BOCES for Regents retakes and summer enrichment--but not the airports---yet). Mounting evidence to prove our identity is held by someone else, which by its very nature makes it more vulnerable to theft or other nefarious purposes.

We are required to put ourselves (our very self identity) at risk in order to pass the Chemistry Regents. Seems a little bit like trying to "protect" against obesity by requiring you to purchase more Oreos so that I can put another lock on your pantry door so the Oreos are safe.

Go have an Oreo on me.