We Need Proof

Morning Meme

So I just started my morning “read” with a look at what’s coming across on Facebook.  The “meme” that stood out to me was about Voter Identification Laws.  It was a series of pictures:  people using ID to get their bank account, buy a gun, buy cigarettes and alcohol – and then asks “tell me again why an ID for voting is bad?”

I almost commented.  There are two parts to voting, registration and casting an actual vote.  For over a century, a signature has been required to register to vote.  When someone actually votes, that signature is matched to the one on file.  That, by the way, is how we still use “checks” (yep, I know that’s old fashioned too).  And, just like checks, when a question arises about the validity of the signature, then more investigation is required.

And to say that to vote absentee you need to have a copy of State ID attached, or worse, a notarized copy, defeats the entire purpose of absentee voting.  The idea of absentee voting is to allow someone to vote from their own home, for convenience, illness, or calendar conflict.  Forcing them to go out and make a copy, or worse, a notarized copy of their State ID, defeats the entire purpose.  It makes voting so much more difficult.  Which of course, is the “real” purpose of those laws.

I didn’t comment on Facebook though.  My theory is that if someone actually writes a comment, I’ll respond.  If they simply copy/paste a picture, then they really aren’t looking for responses, just affirmation.

COVID ID

But it did strike me that they really don’t believe what they say.  Let’s take their argument onto its next logical conclusion.  If you need ID for banking and cigarettes, alcohol and guns, then sure as Hell we should have ID to make sure you’ve received the COVID vaccine and you’re not spreading the “virus” to the rest of society.

Can there be a more important goal for our country than to stop the spread of COVID?  We ALL know that the longer it spreads, the more likely there will be genetic mutations in the virus.  Those mutations could well render the vaccines and treatments ineffective, setting the nation and ultimately the world back to “square one” in combatting the disease.  “Square One” by the way, is March of 2020, when the nation was forced to shut down. 

While keeping bad checks from being cashed and preventing underage folks from getting smokes and booze are all laudable goals; there can be nothing more immediately important to our society than to keep the virus in check.  Getting everyone vaccinated is clearly the way to do that.  Currently, less than twenty percent of Americans are fully protected, though that number is increasing by one and a half million a day (one half of one percent).  But to get back to “the ballgame” safely, or the bar, or the concert, or high school graduations, we need to have eighty percent or more protected.

Ticket to Normal

So it seems reasonable that we should be able to PROVE that folks have done the intelligent thing and gotten the vaccine.  And what about those who cannot, for medical reasons, take the shot?  Well, until we get our whole society to the level of “herd immunity”, approximately eighty percent or so, then those folks are a risk.  They need to protect themselves from crowds and exposure, until the rest of us do the “right” thing.  And, for areas of greater exposure like crowds, this isn’t something we should take anyone’s “word” on.  Our nation has been far too divided to chance that.

We don’t take people’s “word” when they vote.  We take their registration signature, and match their ballot signature.  If they don’t match, then we further investigate.  In a nation that is battling its way out of a year of economic and social upheaval of COVID-19, why in the world would we take their “word” on being vaccinated?

It’s simple:  there’s a “app” for that.  Other nations throughout the world are using it as a “ticket” back to normal life.  But somehow here in America, some see this as a “invasion” of their personal rights.  Several states are even considering outlawing it.  What’s funny though, is that they are the same folks who are demanding ID for voting. 

They need to get their story straight.