Real ID offers real protection
In her column "Real ID, real problem" (Commentary, June 17), Cynthia Boersma, the legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, rattles off the standard rhetoric against secure identification programs.
She claims that the Real ID program calls for "a national ID card" and that it will involve "huge costs of time and money" and leave us with "less, not more, security."
She conveniently fails to mention that the Real ID program - in addition to being a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission - was approved by Congress.
Rather than a federal mandate, the law is simply a set of minimum security standards that states must meet for their licenses to be used to board commercial aircraft or enter federal facilities.
States are in no way required to comply with those standards.
Another empty argument is that Real ID will increase identity theft and reduce personal privacy.
Information provided to state motor vehicle departments will receive greater protection under Real ID than is currently required by federal or state law. And secure licenses are harder to forge.
So Real ID, in fact, will provide real protection from identity theft.
And, in fact, all 56 U.S. states and territories have been granted extensions to meet the law's standards and are taking steps to meet its initial requirements.
This is in line with the views of the majority of Americans - some 82 percent - who favor secure identification.
Stewart Baker, Washington
The writer is an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Scandal distracts from Dixon's work
Finally we have a mayor who loves the city and her job as much as former Mayor Clarence "Du" Burns did and, before him, William Donald Schaefer once did - one who gets things done and is out there involving herself in the city. Then what happens? A scandal ("More subpoenas in Dixon probe," June 19).
But how did any of us get hurt by Mayor Sheila Dixon's sister having a job with a city contractor?
We did not get hurt.
But in countless ways, every day, every one of us is helped by Ms. Dixon.
Yet The S un is loving this whole business because "scandal" supposedly sells papers.
Linda C. Franklin, Baltimore
Routine patronage poisons city politics
