November 30 , 2005 - If you are over 60 you will remember the scene. It was a stock feature of every WWII movie set in Nazi occupied Europe. The hero, an OSS agent; a member of the French Underground; or an escaping flier making his way to neutral Portugal on his way back to England is riding on a train. A Gestapo agent accompanied by two SS troopers carrying machine pistols boards the train. The search party is working its way through the train. They stop at each compartment, throw open the door and, inspecting the passengers inside the Gestapo man demands, “Your papers, Please?” Tension builds as the evil officer comes closer and closer to he hero. You know what the hero’s fate will be when the search gets to him.

Fast forward to September 2005. The scene is set in Denver. It is the morning rush hour. The conveyance is an RTD bus, not a train. Deborah Davis, a matronly 50 year old is commuting to work. The bus stops at the Federal Center, a US enclave in the Colorado capitol’s metropolitan area. Ms. Davis is not stopping there. The Arvada resident works in Denver, on down the bus line. At the Federal Center stop two officers of the Federal Protection Service board the bus. Working their way down the alley to the back of the bus they demand identification from each passenger. Each day the scene is repeated. One day Ms. Davis tells the officer that she does not have an identification with her. The officer tells her that she must carry an ID and not to get on the bus without it. The next day she tells the officer that she had her ID but she refuses to show it to him. She is pulled from the bus, arrested, taken to the police station and issued a notice to appear in court. She is three hours late for work. She is fired.

Now, there is a big difference between the fate in store for our OSS agent and that awaiting Ms. Davis. When he was caught without the proper papers the heroic spy was labeled “an enemy of the Reich”. He disappeared behind the walls of a secret prison. He was denied any semblance of due process. He couldn’t see a lawyer. He was questioned unceasingly and tortured until he broke – or until he died strong to the end with his secrets intact. Nothing like that can happen here. This is the United States and the year is 2005 not 1943. We are so much more civilized today. We reserve that treatment for Enemy Combatants.

So next time you are riding the bus or taking a train or traveling across this great country and you are asked for your ID in the name of Homeland Security reflect on how fortunate you are to live in the land of the Free and the Home of the Brave and meekly hand it over – or else.