Andrea Wants To Be Free, by Mike Gold – Brainiac On Banjo #302 | @MDWorld
November 26, 2012 Mike Gold 1 Comment
Andrea Hernandez, a student at John Jay High School in San Antonio Texas, refused to wear her spiffy new mandatory ID tag. She doesn’t seem to resent the fact that it is a radio tag that keeps track of her in school. Admittedly, this would piss me off royalty. It’s not the high school’s business – or anybody else’s – to track my movements. This is something we reserve for people accused of major felonies when they are out on bail.
Ms. Hernandez refuses to wear the tag because it contains “the mark of the beast.”
According to BBC News, Ms. Hernandez believes wearing such a barcoded tag can be seen as a mark of the beast as described in Revelation 13 in her bible. I won’t challenge that; faith is solely in the soul of the beholder.
Her high school responded with the type of finesse, understanding and perspective one would expect of such an institution: they suspended her liberty-loving ass. She can’t return to her school until she gets tagged. If she doesn’t, she’s been virtually expelled.
This has been put in abeyance by a court challenge; a liberties campaign group called The Rutherford Institute went to court on her behalf and got a temporary restraining order, saying the suspension violated state religious freedom laws and federal first amendment protections.
Rutherford Institute president John Whitehead said “The court’s willingness to grant a temporary restraining order is a good first step, but there is still a long way to go – not just in this case, but dealing with the mindset, in general, that everyone needs to be monitored and controlled… These student locator programs are ultimately aimed at getting students used to living in a total surveillance state where there will be no privacy, and wherever you go and whatever you text or email will be watched by the government.”
Recent history all across the Land of the Free bears this out. The only real question is “Who has more on us, the federal government or Google?” Back in the Mesolithic days when I was in high school, I used to roll my eyes in snarky bemusement whenever my elders would utter “what the hell is this world coming to?” Ms. Hernandez and Mr. Whitehead seem to have a very, very good idea.
Presently, the San Antonio high school’s “big brother is wearing you” ID scam is a pilot program. With luck and a lot of hard work, this situation will bring an end to this frontal assault on our most basic of liberties. Coincidentally, this fight is being waged in an area that gives great lip service to the concept of personal liberty.
Stand strong, Andrea and John. You are indeed the freedom fighters of the 21st Century.
Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com , every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week (check the website above for times) and available On Demand at the same place. That same venue offers us the weekly Great American Popcast, co-hosted with Mike Raub. Gold also joins Martha Thomases and Michael Davis as a weekly columnist at www.comicmix.com where he pontificates on matters of four-color.
Doug Abramson
November 26, 2012 - 6:24 am
Interesting that the administrators in charge didn’t seem to understand that this type of objection to the plan could occur. They only live in the Bible belt. I’m just surprised that there weren’t more religious objectors to make this a class action. If anybody knows, I’d like to know what the home schooling laws are in Texas. I’m usually against the concept; but any parent that has any objection to this plan, should home school their kids until this blows over. If the school is deprived of enough warm bodies and the state and Federal funds that go with them, they should back down. The only thing that school administrators want more than total control over their students, is funding.
Martha Thomses
November 26, 2012 - 6:26 am
Why don’t they just microchip us at birth and be done with it? Works for my cat.
Mike Gold
November 26, 2012 - 7:37 am
Martha… when was the last time you saw “The President’s Analyst?” We won’t be given the “chip” at birth — it’ll be sold to us as eternal Wi-Fi/phone/mental testing/GPS.
Two-way GPS.
Mike Gold
November 26, 2012 - 7:39 am
That’s “mental teXting.” I think.
Well, maybe not…
Mike Gold
November 26, 2012 - 8:31 am
Doug, I’m very much against home schooling. I question the depth of content and challenge the spin on issues that parents perceive as going against their own political and religious philosophies. But, more important, home schooling denies the socialization experiences both positive AND negative that are a critical part of growing up: learning how to get along with others, being introduced to and even challenging different points of view, learning from the experience of others, dealing with interpersonal conflicts, and, simply, the concept of “playing nice.” These are elements of extreme value that should be obvious to all but, sadly, are not to the home schoolers. Socialization skills are more important than mere book-learning.
Rick Oliver
November 26, 2012 - 10:08 am
The “socialization” aspect of school is, IMO, highly over-rated. With the exception of those religious or political home schoolers who isolate their children from all outside influence, the world is full of “socialization” opportunities. I home schooled my daughters through 8th grade, and they acclimated to high school without any notable problems. No doubt there’s lots of “socialization” at fundamentalist elementary schools, Jesus Camp, and Bob Jones University, but I’m glad my children weren’t exposed to that kind of socialization. I’m the product of 18 years of public education (including college and graduate school at a state university), and I’m about the most anti-social person I know — but it’s hard to judge since I know so few people since I’m so anti-social.
While I’m certainly opposed to mandatory devices that monitor your movements in school (or anywhere else), I’m also opposed to striking down such regulations on religious grounds. What’s next? You get an exemption from science classes that teach evolution or the blasphemous notion that the universe is billions of years old?
It’s interesting to note that most public schools require certain immunizations, but you can get an exemption for religious reasons in many (most?) states. You cannot, however, get an exemption because you did some research and decided it wasn’t in the best interest of your children. Regardless of how flawed your research may be (most people in this country don’t even have the most basic understanding of probability theory), why should this be any less valid than saying that God told you not to do it?
Mike Gold
November 26, 2012 - 10:13 am
Rick, given the large number of friends you and I have and have had in common, I find it odd that you think you’re anti-social. You’re simply choosy.
Douglass Abramson
November 26, 2012 - 11:05 am
Mike,
I agree with all of your criticisms of home schooling. I normally think that its a terrible idea and dislike even more that some parents that home school can force little Timmy onto the local high school’s football team, while still home schooling. A temporary boycott of the school I question and the financial hit it would take is the only way to make the school administration back off the GPS collars. Home schooling is the only way I can think of to starve the school of funding.
R. Maheras
November 26, 2012 - 12:28 pm
Shee-oot. Most people already carry tracking devices. They are called cell phones.
In the case of these RFID chip student cards, the tracking is simply local and more overt.
Compared to the 1970s, no one “on the grid” has any privacy. Cell phones, credit cards, and millions of cameras in a myriad of locations nationwide make that impossible. And with the advent of overhead satellites, and now drones, someday every human may be tracked, even if they are out hiking in the Sierras.
In fact, if I were a billionaire with some lark time on my hands, I’d be flying HD camera/infrared-equipped drones with sophisticated mammalian profiling software over the Pacific northwest 24-7 to prove/disprove once and for all whether or not Bigfoot exists. Hell, one may as well put such technology to good use.
😉
Mike Gold
November 26, 2012 - 1:18 pm
You’re absolutely right, Russ. It’s a different, but closely related subject.
I just finished a round-trip drive from Connecticut to Detroit and between my cell phone, my iPad, my credit cards, the cameras on the Interstate, the cameras at the stop lights, the cameras at the gas stations, the cameras at the ATMs, the security cameras in the stores and in the lobby of the George Romero Home for the Aged where we warehouse my mother, I am sure every mile of my trip could be tracked.
I thought it was kind of cool when Ming The Merciless could view anybody anywhere back in the 1930s. Now that it has come to pass, it’s not so cool. But it is very Ming-like, isn’t it?
Doug Abramson
November 26, 2012 - 2:13 pm
The difference is with cell devices, most of the people buying them are adults who know about the tracking capabilities. (I say most because there will always be someone who would be shocked to find out that water is wet.) They are buying them voluntarily for their or their children’s use. The tracking abilities can be subverted, if the user will put up with some inconvenience; or people can opt out of using them, if they are willing to give up the convenience and relay on wired only communication. The school devices are being forced onto minors without parental approval, I doubt that they can be disabled and if the student refuses to wear it they get expelled. I’m willing to allow the possibility of being tracked in exchange for the convenience of instant, on demand communication. The student doesn’t get anything in exchange for wearing the name tags. If the administrators want to know where certain students are, they can get off their asses and look for them.
Vinnie Bartilucci
November 26, 2012 - 2:13 pm
This is a classic example of being on the right side of an argument (mine), but for a damn fool reason, one I’d feel honor-bound to debate her on. My Mom was notorious for that kind of thing.
Of course, one could easily argue that there’s so much tracking ability in the phones we all happily carry about, it’s almost a moot point. But theoretically, all that tracking can be turned off, and most benefits us in some minor way, even if it’s only a few coupons
Reg
November 26, 2012 - 2:13 pm
“Be afraid. Be veeerrry afraid.”
Mike Gold
November 26, 2012 - 3:53 pm
We trade our freedoms. Sometimes, it’s an okay trade, and cell phones usually fall into that category. If I’m about to go someplace where I don’t want to be tracked, I’ll leave the phone home and turned off. If I’m driving someplace and I don’t want to be tracked, I’m screwed: I can leave the EZ Pass transponder home (a valued convenience that saves at least 10 minutes on the Tappen Zee Bridge alone) but I can’t avoid those cameras. But I can’t stay at home 24/7. I can take public transportation locally, but the magnetic transit cards are (or might be, depending upon the service) linked to the credit card with which I purchased the damn things. And I often have no cash option when buying those cards — I’d have to drive to a station further away, where I’m tracked going into and leaving the parking lot.
Lucky for the powers that be, there is no constitutional issue here. We have no guaranteed right to privacy.
Certainly not on the Internets.
George Haberberger
November 27, 2012 - 6:13 am
“We have no guaranteed right to privacy.”
Mike, I’m inclined to agree with you but you’d get an argument from 1973’s Supreme Court which used the non-existent right to privacy as the basis for the Roe v Wade decision.
Rene
November 27, 2012 - 10:44 am
Didn’t you hear? Teenagers don’t have a right to privacy. If there is one thing that is greater than religion or politics is a parent’s desire to have their teen kids monitored 24/7.
Mike Gold
November 27, 2012 - 6:01 pm
OK, we have a right to privacy. It’d be nice if it were spelled out… but that would just piss people off.
And, yeah, teenagers aren’t humans and therefore do not have the rights bestowed upon humans.
I’m having a hard time tracking what rights which beings have and when they have them, when they lose them, when they regain them, and which ones we think we have but do not. Maybe I’ll put together a spreadsheet, but I’m afraid I’d only be able to read it in a TARDIS.
Rick Oliver
November 28, 2012 - 1:30 pm
There is an implied right to privacy in the fourth amendment, and the ninth and tenth amendments grant a wide variety of unfortunately undefined “rights” to the people.
Mike Gold
November 29, 2012 - 5:47 pm
There’s a problem with implied rights and undefined rights. They are implied and undefined.
The whole concept of “rights” is a fallacy. The only rights we truly have are those we use without harassment. “Rights” granted to us often have to be fought for and virtually always have to be defended from time to time, sometimes with a degree of militancy. Your rights can be ignored in court and frequently are; your rights can be reversed by another court later on. You are never safe.
Rick Oliver
November 30, 2012 - 3:19 pm
Well, that’s why we have the judicial branch of the federal government to interpret the Constitution for us, despite the loud complaints from the “strict constructionists” and/or the “contextualists” or whatever they’re calling themselves these days.
David Oakes
December 1, 2012 - 9:12 am
Saddly, it seems this is not about the RFID tracking, but just another “Social Security Numbers are the Mark of Satan” kerfluffle, the kind that have been going on since, well, 32 AD:
Was a Texas Student Really Expelled for Refusing To Wear an RFID Chip?
Which is sad, because we really do need a discusssion in the countryabout whether the ability to follow you to the bathroom is worth the ease of voting for Homecoming King electronically. But as the comments have shown, maybe too many of us have cell phones to care anymore.
Jeremiah Avery
December 3, 2012 - 8:07 am
I find it oddly amusing that a state that goes on and on about the government staying out of peoples’ lives seems to have no problem instituting something that would make Orwell spin in his grave.