(no subject)

[semperfiona]

I have a lot of things written down on a piece of paper to remind me to post about them, and I'm not in the mood to write about individually or at length.. So here's a jumble.

• News item that the US is implementing an alien registration system, complete with photographs and fingerprints, and periodic checkins. Reminded me of my days in Japan: having to be fingerprinted just because one is not a citizen was very humiliating. It felt like the minute any crime occurred, they were going to use the alien registration list fingerprints first before looking for citizens as suspects.
  
  There's a rant hiding here, one I've made many times, about the acquiescence of the citizenry in the erosion of our civil rights and liberties. It's not our job to give the police more handles on us. Where is the line? Where does it end? Pastor Niemuller's quote seems apropos again...So Arabs (and those who appear Arab to ignorant observers) and Muslims (not synonymous!) are being singled out now. What group is next? Pagans? Queers? Uppity women?


• I had more weird dreams last night. Maybe I'll write about them later.


• Middle-of-the-night revelation du jour (or de la nuit): Not only do I deserve to be fucking cherished (thanks, WomBAT), but I also deserve to have and express my feelings. I shouldn't have to keep things back out of fear of someone's reacting badly. I'm not responsible for reactions. Sure, that doesn't mean actively trying to hurt people, but I shouldn't have to pretend to be happy when I'm not, or vice versa for that matter. I'm not expressing this well. I'll have to try again when my brain is working.


• I've never seen anyone play two saxophones at once before!
  
  I went to Jazz in June at the Missouri Botanical Garden tonight. Rebecca didn't make it, but I hung out with MJ and her husband and friend anyway. It was very nice, good music, cool evening (and not a drop of rain! I even saw the evening star!), food, wine, conversation.

Comments

[jingoro.livejournal.com]

There is a need to uniquely identify a person. This is very useful in many legitimate cases such as voter registration, licencing, and security matters. Nothing fills this role better than fingerprinting. The only proper application is to follow the equal protection under the law route and fingerprint everyone as a routine matter of course, be they Christian, Muslim, Pagan, or just plain uppity. Then, nobody's civil rights are violated and everyone remains innocent until proven guilty. If those same fingerprints provide evidence in a case, good. I'm all for justice.

I'm all for a single, secure, authorative national ID card. Biometrics (fingerprints, retinal scans, and other methods) are one way to provide for this. With insightful electronic measures, it can serve as drivers licence, social security card, selective service registration, voter registration, and civil identification all rolled into one, and without many of the identity theft issues present in current forms of ID.

[indigobynight.livejournal.com]

but I also deserve to have and express my feelings. I shouldn't have to keep things back out of fear of someone's reacting badly. I'm not responsible for reactions.

This is such a huge--and yet difficult for so many (including me)--realization. I have to keep reminding myself of this all the time.

Sorry I didn't make it last night...(grrr)...I had a weird sort of anxiety thing going on at the last minute and realized I needed to get some alone time to sort thru my head. Crowds/interaction would not have been good for me. I am all better now, tho...I think a lot of it was mental/emotional exhaustion...the no-sleep thing has been killing me. But I just heard back from Wash U re: a sleep study they are doing with some herbal medication, so I may be getting involved in that. I can't do prescrip sleep aides, so i am hoping this will help!

~hugs~

R