Opinion: Will there be any info left?
OPINION
Denny Bonavita, Publisher
The Courier-Express
God help us when government tries to protect us.
House Bill 1667 would amend Pennsylvania's right-to-know law to exclude date of birth as information of public record.
That's not enough.
A proposed amendment would allow school districts to withhold the addresses of school employees.
Why?
Fear of identity theft. Fear of someone doing something bad to a teacher's house, or to a teacher at his/her house.
Why don't we just issue every school teacher an M1AI Abrams Tank, to park out front, and blow the snot out of any bad person?
No, wait. The bad person might be sneaky, come around back.
Make that TWO M1A1Abrams tanks.
Sheesh.
Folks, we live in a free and open society. If someone wants to find someone else, it isn't difficult, unless the find-ee has gone into hiding, which usually occurs only when the find-ee has done something that would be illegal for a school teacher to do.
Besides, "John Jones, 38, of 125 West Overshoe Drive, was arrested for drunk driving" makes it perfectly clear that the person arrested was not John Jones, 86, of 521 East Galoshes Lane.
Think that isn't important? Ask people named John Jones or Jane Smith. There are many of them, as well as a whole bunch of people with similar-sounding names. Using ages and addresses in identification is a crucial element to living in a free and open society.
"But the bad guys might do something bad...."
Yes, and the world could end later today.
The world will end later today, for practical purposes, for some poor person whose car is smacked by a truck somewhere in the world.
But for the rest of us, it would be prudent to keep some of our money in the bank to use in buying next week's groceries. Yes, we could be the dead person. But the odds are we won't be, and we need to live our lives, not simply exist, cowering in fear in some dungeon.
Government seems to be obsessed these days with "protecting privacy."
Whose privacy?
All too often, it is government's own privacy. "The less we have to tell those nosy citizen/taxpayers, they less they'll know about what we are doing. So let's be secretive."
Again - Sheesh.
Name. Age. Address.
These are, and have been, fundamental elements of identification, needed by police officers, by emergency responders, health care treatment providers, news organizations ... everybody.
Would the Pennsylvania Legislature kindly settle the budget crisis, and leave this petty stuff alone?
Denny Bonavita, Publisher
The Courier-Express
God help us when government tries to protect us.
House Bill 1667 would amend Pennsylvania's right-to-know law to exclude date of birth as information of public record.
That's not enough.
A proposed amendment would allow school districts to withhold the addresses of school employees.
Why?
Fear of identity theft. Fear of someone doing something bad to a teacher's house, or to a teacher at his/her house.
Why don't we just issue every school teacher an M1AI Abrams Tank, to park out front, and blow the snot out of any bad person?
No, wait. The bad person might be sneaky, come around back.
Make that TWO M1A1Abrams tanks.
Sheesh.
Folks, we live in a free and open society. If someone wants to find someone else, it isn't difficult, unless the find-ee has gone into hiding, which usually occurs only when the find-ee has done something that would be illegal for a school teacher to do.
Besides, "John Jones, 38, of 125 West Overshoe Drive, was arrested for drunk driving" makes it perfectly clear that the person arrested was not John Jones, 86, of 521 East Galoshes Lane.
Think that isn't important? Ask people named John Jones or Jane Smith. There are many of them, as well as a whole bunch of people with similar-sounding names. Using ages and addresses in identification is a crucial element to living in a free and open society.
"But the bad guys might do something bad...."
Yes, and the world could end later today.
The world will end later today, for practical purposes, for some poor person whose car is smacked by a truck somewhere in the world.
But for the rest of us, it would be prudent to keep some of our money in the bank to use in buying next week's groceries. Yes, we could be the dead person. But the odds are we won't be, and we need to live our lives, not simply exist, cowering in fear in some dungeon.
Government seems to be obsessed these days with "protecting privacy."
Whose privacy?
All too often, it is government's own privacy. "The less we have to tell those nosy citizen/taxpayers, they less they'll know about what we are doing. So let's be secretive."
Again - Sheesh.
Name. Age. Address.
These are, and have been, fundamental elements of identification, needed by police officers, by emergency responders, health care treatment providers, news organizations ... everybody.
Would the Pennsylvania Legislature kindly settle the budget crisis, and leave this petty stuff alone?