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Though the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags set
to be tested and surgically implanted below the skin by the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the homeless
populations of New York, San Francisco, Washington DC and
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania are not being used to insure killing as
those in Logan's Run, they do turn the most vulnerable people in
America into cattle, tagged and monitored like animals.
Mandatory, compulsory and not a choice, the RFID tags are
miniature radio transmitters the size of a matchstick inserted
under the skin that enable police and government social programs
to track and document the movements of homeless people
electronically.
Positioned as "A
rare opportunity to use advanced technology to meet society's
dual objectives of better serving our homeless population while
making our cities safer," by HRSA Administrator Betty James
Duke, some may consider this government newspeak designed to
quell the general population investigation into the fact that
this is a clear violation of our
Fourth Amendment
right to be secure in our person.
It brings up issues in the
Fifth Amendment
by depriving the homeless of the only thing they have,
freedom and liberty. It allows the government to use private
property, the body of each homeless person, for public use.
TOP
Implanting
RFID's would not be an issue if the homeless chose to have this
implant, freely without the sacrifice of services, agreeing to
all restrictions, including the ability to be monitored and were
paid or compensated for participation. Then it is a person's
choice. It is a completely different issue when it is required
or if a person of diminished capacity accepts it without
understanding what he or she is doing. When this is the case, a
person is used. The current presentation of this program shows
it to be mandatory rather than choice.
How does one argue that the compulsory implanting of a radio
chip under a person's skin is just? Sold to the American public
as a necessary tool of public good, one cannot help but reflect
on the common saying, "The road to hell is paved with good
intentions."
Abject poverty becomes a societal sin, giving license to the
government to monitor your every move. Poverty becomes the sole
justification for electronic imprisonment. This is a
deprivation of liberty. Making a person a monitored animal
entrusts the government with full authority to use any
information collected for research purposes or to round up and
channel American citizens and non-citizens alike. The homeless
RFID program is set to go into effect in five American cities
now and possibly nationwide over the next several years.
WHAT EXACTLY ARE RFID'S?
United Press International reported April 3, 2004 that,
"Participating states will receive grants of $14 million to $58
million from the federal
Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness
(PATH) program, which was created under the McKinney Act to fund
support services for the homeless. A second phase of the
project, scheduled to be completed in early 2005, will
wirelessly transmit live information on the locations of
homeless people to handheld computers running the Windows CE
operating system."
RFID's are currently used in commerce to track purchases,
inventory and in some cases consumer behavior by transmitting
information via a radio signal that can be picked up by any
person with a receiver tuned to that frequency. Ford Motor
Company implants RFID's in all tires since 2001 to quickly
identify the tires during service. Selected toll roads in Canada
use RFID's and Shell Oil implements them in their EasyPass®
system. Future applications being implemented include United
Kingdom's Marks & Spencer's department store's tagging of RFID's
onto their clothing. The European Central Bank is working to
develop a hair-thin transmitter that can be imbedded in all
Euros by 2005 to prevent, the agencies implementing the
transmitters in the European currency state, laundering, black
market transactions and bribery. In Tokyo, RFID's are being
tested to monitor in-store reading habits at bookstores
and newsstands, supposedly for market research. And the Western
Beef Development Center in Canada implanted 292 calves to track
the animals from growth through slaughter.
Like the cattle in Canada, the HRSA proposes implanting RFID's
in homeless people to better track them, for his or her own good
of course. The general reaction of most Americans in this age of
transparent civil liberties coagulate around the idea that if
this makes us "safer" the infringement remains just.
TOP
TARGET SOCIETY'S WEAKEST FIRST:
In Nazi Germany, Hitler first went after society's most
vulnerable, the mentally ill, homosexuals and handicap. The
mentally ill, loose in society often caused problems and can be
a danger to others and themselves through no fault of their own.
To his "Great society", they were as much of an embarrassment as
an inconvenience. Convincing the German people their safety
would be greatly enhanced if these problem people were removed
from society, his policies of containment and execution began.
Soon Catholics, gypsies, communists, Poles and Jews would find
themselves targets.
TOP
How he soothed the German society into compliance illustrates
classic conditioning. Hitler tested the waters on policies,
acclimating the population slowly toward acceptance, beginning
with the smallest, least able to defend itself portions of
society, the mentally ill. Ironically, the majority of America's
homeless suffer from mental illness, handicaps or addiction. Far
more concerning is the fact that thirty-six percent of homeless
people are families with children under the age of eighteen.
Reading through the escalation of persecution in Nazi Germany,
correlations with the United States since
September 11th are evident. Fear consistently used as the reason for all
policies blinds Americans as we lay down our freedoms for the
perceived safety of our government guardian. From this blind
trust, the Patriot Act,
CAPPS II, HR 3077 and the latest craziness once thought unthinkable, The
Republican National Committee's pressure on the Federal
Election Commission ("FEC"). The Republican National Committee
is calling for new rules to financially punish non-profit
organizations that dare to communicate with the public
critically of President Bush or members of Congress. Also
unthinkable, now we want to brand people electronically.
Prior to September 11th, this idea would be unconscionable. It's
time we stopped using September 11th as an excuse for
everything. Each of us has a greater chance of being hit by
lightning than killed by a terrorist. Nearly 100,000 Americans
died last year from prescription mix-ups, over 400,000 from
tobacco related illness. Contrast that with the total number of
civilian casualties by terrorists in the United States from
January 1, 2002 through today: Zero.
TOP
FOR OUR SAFETY AS A NATION?
Hitler tattooed those he wished to track. Rather than use
sub-dermal ink, America uses sub-dermal electronics to
categorize, tag and track our homeless, against their will,
rationalizing for their protection and society's protection. Who
will be the next group requiring monitoring? Will we implant
RFID's into convicted shoplifters who have served their time so
that security can monitor them when they enter a store?
What about deadbeat dads and moms who fail to pay child support?
Shouldn't they too be monitored? Their lack of payment places
children at risk and creates situations that may cause children
to become criminals Consider it a pre-emptive strike against
possible future activity. While we're at it, under the guise of
protection from abduction or getting lost, shouldn't an RFID be
inserted under every newborn's skin? Doesn't that make you feel
safer?
What about people collecting social security, unemployment or
welfare? Shouldn't they be monitored to make sure they do not
abuse the programs our tax dollars pay for? What about the
criminal who is released? Sure they've done their time, but
society is safer if the police and parole officer always know
where they are. Don't forget every person with a DUI, (Driving
Under the Influence). Think of how many lives could be saved
if every person convicted of a DUI was tracked by the local
police!
Then we have our War on Terror. All of the Arabs in this
country, Christian or Muslim could at some point become
rebellious to the way we treat them and ridicule their culture,
faiths and traditions. We brand all as potential terrorists with
our self-righteous callousness, therefore for the safety of
Americans shouldn't all Arabs be tagged to prevent terrorism?
While were at it, why not implant and tag every Hispanic
American so we can easily identify who is here illegally? Or
every African American who grows up in the hood since statistics
show many end up dead or in jails?
TOP
CONCLUSION
It starts with the homeless, where does it end? In the movie
Logan's Run, freedom prevails. Two people escape the monitoring
systems and in turn free the entire society, finding themselves
in an ancient ruin of Washington DC. Logan's Run takes place in
the USA, the ultimate irony. This movie is supposed to be
science fiction, not a prelude to reality.
Where does it end, America? Eventually each and every one of us
will fall under some category that must be monitored for our own
or society's protection whether due to circumstance of life,
such as unemployment, illness, old age or bad choices. Is this
freedom? Is this what we fight for? If we allow our government
to exploit the most vulnerable, the homeless and mentally ill in
our society as implanting tracking systems within a person's
skin does, it is only a matter of time before they find an
excuse to implant us all. <END>
Epilogue
Chip Implanted in Mexico Judicial Workers MEXICO CITY (AP) - Security has reached the subcutaneous level for Mexico's attorney general and at least 160 people in his office - they have been implanted with microchips that get them access to secure areas of their headquarters. It's a pioneering application of a technology that is
widely used in animals but not in humans. Mexico's top federal prosecutors and investigators began receiving chip implants in their arms in November in order to get access to restricted areas inside the attorney general's headquarters, said Antonio Aceves, general director of Solusat, the company that distributes the microchips in Mexico.
Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha and 160 of his employees were implanted at a cost to taxpayers of $150 for each rice grain-sized chip. FULL STORY
England:
Implant chip to identify the dead
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4721175.stm Thursday, 28 July, 2005 (BBC):  The carnage inflicted by bomb attacks in Egypt, London and across Iraq has raised the problem of how the authorities identify people in an emergency situation. Whether through natural disaster or man-made, the killing of
large numbers of people presents a great challenge to the emergency services, who have to identify the victims as quickly as possible. One aid to identification advocated by an American company is the VeriChip, a small device containing a unique number injected into a person's arm. During 11 September, some rescue workers, aware of the huge dangers they were facing, took to writing their badge number on their skin, in case they became victims themselves. Their attempts to ensure their own identity should the worst happen was spotted by New
Jersey surgeon Richard Seelig. Five days later, he injected himself with two rice grain-sized chips, containing a unique number which could be used to identify him. "I wanted to demonstrate its effectiveness as being used as an identifier for people," Dr Seelig told BBC World Service's Analysis programme. "Also, I wanted to show it could be as comfortable for a person as not having one, so that it wouldn't interfere with that person's daily life." FULL STORY
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