The Rough Slope

‘Its always reasonable’

While sitting during sunset at the beautiful Memorial Union, two friends and I were enjoying a pitcher of beer and discussing many things. Work, love lives, how the Brewers were doing are always staples of these chats. This time around, a new topic entered; the state of the world around the NSA and Snowden.

We had an interesting debate around the morality, legality, and rationality of both Snowden’s decisions to leak material and to flee the country and seek asylum. It was a very refreshing discussion that broke from the sensationalism of the press and the echo chamber of the internet. It was the kind of chat that deserves to take place at sunset with a pitcher of beer.

“Excuse me. May I see your ID?” Came a voice from over my shoulder.

Three employees of the Union has shown up to perform ‘random’ checks of ID’s to try and drive away any underage people from drinking beer on the public terrace. They wore the uniform of other Union employees and were respectful, and I knew saying No would only cause a ruckus.

Even though a driver’s licence had to be shown to purchase the beer, we showed them our IDs and they moved on to bug other tables of 20-somethings just in case someone was breaking the law.

This serendipitous event folded into our conversation about individual rights and at what point they can become violated. Ultimately, it was deemed reasonable to ask someone who was drinking beer publicly for their ID. Yet, something felt wrong.

This event stuck with me for a while, causing an internal debate over if and where the line can be drawn between personal privacy and public safety. Tools that local law enforcement use such as red light cameras and DUI checkpoints and their ramifications, good and bad, danced in my head as I tried to sleep over the next few days.

Ultimately, I had no answer. Each request for power seamed reasonable and in good faith to help protect or enhance the world in which we live. All I know is that there is and will always be a constant push for more power because of politics, money, and egos. Each request made under the same banner: ‘Because we can be safer’.