May 12, 2004

Long gone are my days of cruising high school halls, skipping class and trying not to get caught -- but I'm still expected to have permission slips. No, I'm not a teacher in a youth indoctrination center, so I don't distribute the silly things. I mean that according to my ever-so-helpful local and national governments, I need permission slips -- their approval to do all sorts of things that I think most reasonable individuals would agree are none of the state's business.

The most obvious example is the permission slip to travel. Commonly referred to as a driver's license, the use of this permission slip has expanded to the point where it's necessary for just about any sort of travel. Want to get on a commercial jet? You'll need picture ID -- for most folks that means a driver's license. Want to get a bus or train ticket? Chances are you'll need a picture ID for that transaction as well. Just about any time a person "needs" photo ID, the driver's license is what folks want to see. It "proves" you're you, you're the age you claim to be, and it imparts the powerful granting of permission to drive on the roads in this country. Well, it does unless you go faster than the busybodies like, and they catch you at it numerous times; or you do other, more foolish things, like driving with too much alcohol in your system so that you're dangerous (I mean really dangerous, not the nanny-ninnies' ever-changing DUI threshold). Some deluded fools may try to tell you otherwise, but the U.S. system of driver's licenses is a de facto national ID that doubles as a permission slip for many activities.

Many buy into the state's permission-slip business for romantic relationships. Otherwise known as marriage licenses, they're a good way to separate twitterpated folks from some greenbacks. Even many libertarians contribute to this permission-slip scam, which mystifies me. (Before anyone takes pen in hand to chide me, I'm not against committed romantic relationships -- I consider myself happily married. But no church or state gave me permission to form any intimate relationship -- the bonds are voluntary, are continually earned, and are solely between the individuals involved. I daresay our voluntary commitments help keep those bonds strong, rather than the chains of the state binding us in wedlock.)

If you want to engage in certain forms of commerce, you'll need permission slips -- some of them requiring lots of expensive education. Florists, hair stylists, plumbers, physicians, counselors, real estate agents, financial consultants, morticians, taxi drivers, pest exterminators, cosmetologists, restaurateurs -- these are but a few of the businesses or professions that require permission slips to enter in this supposedly free country. Often these permission slips are simply money-skimming scams by the state -- toss them the required coin and they'll leave your business alone. Other times they require an extraordinary investment of coursework, test-taking, or inspections -- which require time and money. They also serve as barriers to motivated, bright individuals whose language skills or economic means make it difficult to jump through these bureaucratic hoops.

Your land is often not yours to do with as you wish -- zoning regulations mandate permission slips to build a new structure, add on to an existing structure, or simply upgrade certain features in an existing structure. Again, hard-earned money is tossed into the bureaucratic toilet, rather than used productively by its earner. And if a landowner's land is of a certain type -- say, a wetland -- well, there's no helping her then. She'll pay for the land -- and the inevitable taxes for the privilege of "owning" it, but it will never be hers to use as she likes. In most places, you can't even kill critters on your own land unless you have a permission slip (read: hunting or fishing license) and it's at the state-approved time of year for such activity.

Owning the best means of self-defense available requires a permission slip in far too many jurisdictions in a country whose Bill of Rights states that "... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Amazingly, some libertarians view the attainment of these permission slips as a positive step over the once-common open carry system that worked well, and can work again.

If any subject thinks that a permission slip obtained in one jurisdiction is sufficient for others, he hasn't been paying attention. Why milk the money-making cow only once? The only licenses that are generally recognized across the country are marriage licenses (and some states are working hard to change that for marriage licenses issued to gays in other states) and driver's licenses. As one pro-freedom activist recently discovered the very hard way, jurisdictions often pick and choose among the licenses they'll accept from other jurisdictions. In this case, the state of Ohio chose to accept Jeff "the Hunter" Jordan's New Hampshire driver's license, but not his concealed carry firearms licenses -- not any of the several he had on his person. So much for full faith and credit ...

Here's the most egregious permission slip I've yet encountered: the prescription. For many individuals, myself included, these papers are thinly-disguised permission slips to live in a reasonably healthy manner. What else can you call the repeated requirements to: a) pay a permission-slipped medical practitioner to write you a piece of paper saying you're "allowed" to have a certain quantity of a certain substance for a certain period of time; and b) pay another permission-slipped medical practitioner to give you that medicine -- and enter your information into a huge medical database that the nanny-ninnies are scheming to get their hands on?

So, in the spirit of clarifying the English language rather than obfuscating it, why not call all these sham pieces of paper exactly what they are? The state has no business conferring any sort of statement of expertise or skill on an individual -- they've simply co-opted and legitimized several protectionist rackets that used to be called guilds. They've even less business sticking their greedy fingers and nosy eyes into consensual personal interactions, whether it's a business transaction, or a long-term romantic relationship, or pet ownership, or anything else. Referring to licenses and such as permission slips is a subtle but effective way of encouraging non-libertarians to think about how much each American's right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" has been eroded.

Sunni Maravillosa is Director of Operations for Freedom News Daily. She's the publisher of Doing Freedom! 'zine, and co-founder of Liberty Round Table. To see more of her work, please visit her web site, SunniMaravillosa.com.

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