Should a City or State or Nation be allowed to get to the point where it believes it has to keep constant track of the activities of its people?
Currently in Houston, Texas, you cannot use computer at the Houston public library without picture ID and cannot buy Metro bus fare from Metro offices to ride public transportation without picture ID.
Once upon a time in Houston, all you needed in order to have a Houston public library card was to present proof of residence – a State photo ID or Voter registration card or a bill receipt. You could also obtain a computer card, for computer usage only, without ID or even name required. A guest could simply obtain a computer card to use Houston public library computer without any question asked.
That is no longer the case in Houston public libraries. Currently, you MUST present picture ID to obtain a library card or computer card. City agents allege the new ordinance (as of January 2011) is to limit people from having multiple computer cards or from using computers for more than two hours per day as allowed.
While it is true that one could have multiple computer cards, I also know that the computer cards, like library cards, all have unique serial numbers, and are programmed to allow only two hours of computer usage per day. Incidentally, you could (and still can) use up your two hours per day on your library card and then use your two hours per day on your computer card, and so forth.
The Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro), the most accessible public transportation in Houston, now has two stores: One on Travis Street and Lamar Street, and the Administrative building on 1900 Main Street. These Metro stores will not issue a Q-card (also known as the Metro fare card) without picture ID.
If you ride Metro and have to transfer to another Metro transport to reach your destination, then you will need a transfer, else you would be required to again pay fare on transferring vehicle in order to complete your trip. You can only get a transfer to transfer to other Metro transports on the Metro Q-card, seeing Metro buses no longer issue transfers. Thus, if you are in Downtown Houston and need the Metro Q-card to ride Metro, especially for transfer purposes and are not in favor of Q-card registration, you will have to pay cash on a bus to get to a grocery store that sells the Metro Q-card to buy Metro Q-card without registration. Metro is making registration of Q-card mandatory, just as I had suspected in 2008. It is only a matter of time before the grocery stores selling Metro Q-cards stop selling or are instructed to require picture ID for purchase!
I remember accusing Metro in 2008 of electronic surveillance when it introduced the Q-card and instituted mandatory registration for replacement (even if a rider may have unique serial number of lost card). Metro refuted my allegation and said it would give rider option of not registering but rider would risk non-replacement if bus card is lost. We took risk.
Then sometime in 2010, Metro stores in Downtown Houston stopped selling Q-cards without registration. Without a picture ID, Metro staff in 1900 Main Street in Downtown Houston (the one of two Metro Houston Downtown stores now selling Q-cards) will not sell you a Q-card.
The point here is mandatory tracking of the activities of library patrons and the whereabouts of people, as if we are living in the days of the tribulation spoken of in Revelation chapter 13 and the beast is making sure that those who would not comply will neither buy nor sell (or so assumes Anti-Christ)..
There are some folks (myself included) who never used library card for computer usage and do not buy into the idea of government keeping track of our whereabouts with the Metro Q-card. The library card stores information on all your library transactions, while the Metro Q-card is an electronic storage device that stores time, day, direction of travel and all buses or Metro vehicles you have ridden.
If you are one of those who assumes that because this is not happening in your City or State and therefore not your problem, then let me be the first to burst your bubble. You see, historically, Texas is the preferred pilot State for most government projects.
I do not believe it is the government’s darn business what people do online or where people travel, if using public transportation. The government is supposed to be managing and balancing budget of City, State or Nation, not minding my bloody business! The government is now telling folks in Houston that without the paranoid government peering into what we do and where we go, we cannot use Houston public library computers and we will have to spend more money to ride public transportation; both, services funded by taxpayers’ monies!
I believe these acts are display of extreme insecurity and acute paranoia. I think it is tragic that in the “land of the free and the home of the brave,” people are no longer free to be.
What is next? Force people to display ID on their foreheads?