Let's try a thought experiment. Suppose that ten years from now, the street corners are rife with police checkpoints, and the police demand that all pedestrians must present their "papers" for inspection and must submit to a search of their person. Will you tell me that these ID checks are perfectly voluntarily? After all, if I want to avoid the "voluntary" ID checks, all I have to do is never leave my home. After all, I'm perfectly free to stay in my home my entire life; if the government deems that by leaving my house, I have implicitly consented to allowing the police to search me at any time, for any reason, well, what possible grounds for unhappiness could I possibly have? How can this be an imposition when I am perfectly free never to leave my home?
Ask me again when it happens.
The point is that "just don't fly" isn't a meaningful option for many of us. And it's not "just don't fly" -- if you want to avoid ID checks, don't take the bus; don't take the train; don't drive. What does that leave? The alternatives are dwindling day by day.
Why isn't it a meaningful option? Life is a series of choices. I make mine and you make yours. If you don't like the ones you're making, make others.
Perhaps you are prepared to argue that if I want to fly, then I have to "voluntarily" relinquish my civil liberties. Personally, I find that notion obnoxious and unjust. (If showing ID actually were effective at preventing terrorism, then that would be different. But right now the ID checks are pointless security theatre.)
What civil liberties are you relinquishing by flying? You're going where you want to go, when you want to go (unless you're flying USAir). Is there some codicil in the constitution that says you don't have to identify yourself? I admit I am not a scholar, but I missed it if it's there.
I am perfectly free not to eat too. So should I be denied the right to buy groceries or go to a restaurant unless I present ID since no one is stopping me from becoming a farmer?
An ID demand to live a normal life -- and flying is a part of normal life for me and many others here -- in MY OWN COUNTRY is ridiculous.
Your definition of normal might be different from others'. Must they bow to yours? And that MY OWN COUNTRY thing sounds a lot like LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT.
It's fun talking about, but I couldn't care less if ID is required to fly or not. I take very little offense at other people's behavior, unless harms me or my family or my property. Want me to flash a little card so I can ride on the big airplane? Sure...
