My Thoughts on Freedom to Travel / I Won't Be Renewing My License After Real ID

[Luke S]

I don't doubt at all that the government has been using car driving as a way to harass and oppress people, like when they pull people over for silly reasons and then harass them.

But the thing is that I don't drive very much because I do a lot of endurance training and endurance sports such as marathon running, so I can usually run or bike to wherever I need to get to.

So that being said, I won't be renewing my license after Real ID is put in place in Michigan and Ohio, if I still stay in Michigan after graduating from college. Because the government of Michigan is doing the exact opposite of what NH is doing, in other words they are trying the hardest they can to implement Real ID as soon as they possibly can. So when those Michigan Real ID's come out, I won't be getting one. This isn't something I decided because of you guys, this is something I decided long before I met you guys.

But that being said, I will not be breaking the law by driving without a license, either. I will rely on my natural endurance ability to travel any distance up to 26.2 miles on foot (the farthest I've run is a marathon), and probably twice that, 52.4 miles on bicycle, since it's easier to go far on a bike than on foot. Any farther than that, ..... I'll figure it out.

But if I can move to Montana, that would be the best. And there would be no real ID, and all the natural beauty ever. Montana is the best state ever. Oh how I wish I could live there.

But no. I cannot live there. The person who handles getting people jobs after college at my college says I can't live there, and I will either have to live in San Fransisco or Silicon Valley or Massachusetts, or stay in Michigan, since he said that all the computer jobs are there. And that is what I am best at. Handling computer issues and computer programming. And math. And statistics. Well I will try to push for Massachusetts, since at least then I will be able to live next to all of you and come to Porc Fest every year and come to the UN flag burn every year.

But wait... I just realized that I could live on the south part of New Hampshire, and work in Massachusetts because Massachusetts is so small! And I don't care if I have to drive 2 hours every day to get to work because I realize that freedom is not free. Hooray!

[kola]

is a job more important than your value of freedom?

i have changed jobs several times to suit my life.

try not to let a job dictate your life. let your life dictate the job.

go wherever you think the getting is good.

If people would learn to be more frugal and self sufficieent we wouldnt need to be slaves to M-F 9-5.



Kola

[J’raxis 270145]

If you're going to do the New Hampshire–Massachusetts commute, don't do it if it involves I-93. (This means Manchester, Concord, and I think Nashua). It took two hours to go sixty miles during rush hour, and perhaps three during the bad snowstorms. Been there, done that, and it was a major contributing factor to me quitting my Massachusetts job.

I've heard—someone else can confirm this?—that the I-95 commute, from the New Hampshire seacoast down to Massachusetts, is much more tolerable.

[TackleTheWorld]

Have you seen the 727 people doing the same thing?

[Luke S]

Have you seen the 727 people doing the same thing?

I cannot sign the pledge. And the reason why I cannot sign it is because the pledge says "I will cut up my driver's license" as part of it. Lauren, I will not even get so far as to cut it up. Because that means that by that point, they will have put my biometric data into their slimy, filthy database, and sent it straight to Washington, D.C. so the Feds can do with it what they please.

Lauren, I will not even show up to Secretary of State's office to get the Real ID driver's license in the first place. So you'll have to amend the pledge to say "I will cut up my driver's license, OR I will never get the driver's license in the first place".

[Kat Kanning]

I don't think I can amend the pledge after all those people have signed it.

The important thing is that you're refusing to accept real ID 

[sandm000]

Actually to clarify it says "If it is implemented in my state, I will cut up my driver's license and refuse to accept a national ID card."

This means that you will cut up your current driver's license and then you will not get a new national ID card.

No one would think to ask you to get into the NID database just so you could thumb your nose at them by cutting up the card.

[Luke S]

I don't think I can amend the pledge after all those people have signed it.

The important thing is that you're refusing to accept real ID 

Well my non-Real-ID license expires in 3 years. So by that point, if they say "Ok, now we've implemented Real ID, so everybody has to have a Real ID license now once their old license expires" of course I will cut up the old one when it expires and not get the Real ID one.

The thing is, the word "implement" could refer to the point when they first start giving out Real ID licenses, or "implement" could refer to the point when they are accepting no other license besides a real ID license (as in "fully implement"), at which point I will cut up my old one and not get a Real ID one. So whether I will cut up my license once they implement Real ID could very well depend upon your definition of the word "implement".

[Lloyd Danforth]

Have you seen the 727 people doing the same thing?

I cannot sign the pledge. And the reason why I cannot sign it is because the pledge says "I will cut up my driver's license" as part of it. Lauren, I will not even get so far as to cut it up. Because that means that by that point, they will have put my biometric data into their slimy, filthy database, and sent it straight to Washington, D.C. so the Feds can do with it what they please.

Lauren, I will not even show up to Secretary of State's office to get the Real ID driver's license in the first place. So you'll have to amend the pledge to say "I will cut up my driver's license, OR I will never get the driver's license in the first place".

My plan is to, simply, not renew if NH goes to National ID

[srqrebel]

Hey Luke, I suggest you take another look at that pledge. The actual wording of the pledge itself is simply, "I will refuse to accept a national ID card but only if 999 other people will do the same."

The reference to cutting up the driver's license is under the heading "More details", and appears to be Kat's explanation for initiating the pledge -- not a part of the actual pledge.

To illustrate, try clicking on the "Sign Pledge" button without providing an email address, and see what shows up on that page.

[Luke S]

Hey Luke, I suggest you take another look at that pledge. The actual wording of the pledge itself is simply, "I will refuse to accept a national ID card but only if 999 other people will do the same."

The reference to cutting up the driver's license is under the heading "More details", and appears to be Kat's explanation for initiating the pledge -- not a part of the actual pledge.

To illustrate, try clicking on the "Sign Pledge" button without providing an email address, and see what shows up on that page.

Allright then, I'm in. Only I'm signing anonymously though because I don't want spammers and internet cretins and people like that that are up to no good getting ahold of my name.