To Die For

I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see
--Amazing Grace, John Newton
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It is being marketed as the card à la mode--the new pocket-sized "alternative passport." Neat and tidy, and cheaper than a real passport. Tres chic. However, it will not entitle you to travel worldwide, so if your travel plans include more than Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean, this card will be a redundancy.

If you do not possess a passport, in a few days you will have to present both a government-issued ID --like a driver's license -- plus proof of citizenship, like a birth certificate, to return to the U.S. after crossing the border. It is unclear whether the new Real ID Chertoff is touting will suffice for both of these requirements.

USA Today reports, "The State Department says it will begin accepting applications Feb. 1 for passport cards as alternatives to passports for Americans who travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean." Not only are they portable, at $45 they are cheaper than a regular passport. If all you do is hop across our borders or go to the Caribbean, this is your card.

From the State Department website:

"To facilitate the frequent travel of U.S. citizens living in border communities and to meet DHS’s operational needs at land borders, the passport card will contain a vicinity-read radio frequency identification (RFID) chip. This chip will link the card to a stored record in secure government databases. There will be no personal information written to the RFID chip itself [green emphasis State Dept.] "

Not now, at least, in the first days of its trial. Pray tell, what will be on the RFID chip?

Sounds pretty benign at first, but the implications are nefarious. This creates a de facto categorization of citizens based on their travel preferences. You will give this information away by virtue of the cost you pay for your identification and therefore the card you carry. Yet another way to slot you in the bureaucratic hierarchy.

Will the chip be like that in your pet cat, revealing name and address (and owner?), in case you get lost?

Will you have more success getting back home than your lost luggage? Or will you end up like them, languishing in an unclaimed baggage depot in Scottsboro, Alabama, unceremoniously waiting to be bought by the highest bidder.