uh well i mean i've had time to think about it because uh we've had uh i i there's been a great deal of difficulty in finding someone to talk to so
oh okay
so um i i was thinking about a couple things uh and whether they are serious some things are serious and some aren't i guess the biggest thing that bothers me is
uh-huh
is uh not the biggest thing but one of the things that bothers me is the credit information
uh-huh
yes
uh situation that you uh that you find yourself almost compromised into giving if you want any sort sort of credit extensive extensive checks and
um-hum
um-hum
and things of that nature when um i i i mean i i don't know if that's an invasion of privacy simply i i do to i do feel it is but i don't know whether some of the questions they ask are legitimate
uh-huh
uh-huh
uh because they are the ones who are making the profit out of your
well what's scary is uh about two three four months ago on a Sunday in the Sunday edition of what is called the morning paper here The Dallas Morning News
uh-huh
they showed a reporter and a um and a copy editor how they went out and they just took um a fellow in John Q Public in Dallas
and all they had was let's see they had his birthday they had something like his birth date the street address um they weren't even sure of the correct spelling of his last name
excuse me and it was um very scary to see what they found out i mean they were able to find out what liens he still had against you know two or three houses through a two divorces children's names locations
um it was really frightening
well i guess i guess then it's just the big brother concept of the fact that once you give your social security number there are people i guess who are who are
uh-huh
uh actually collecting all this all the time and and profiles are given i understand uh i read the other day that uh these telemarketeers when someone talks to you on the phone
yeah
uh-huh
uh all all they need now is your telephone number which i guess is involved in this controversy of whether they can reveal your telephone number or not i i i feel that is an invasion of privacy but it
right uh-huh
i do too yeah i don't the other thing i don't like is um in terms of uh like we just moved here from uh Minneapolis and uh
yeah
to get the the very nice townhouse that we're in you were required by the property management firm that was representing a private landlord you know husband and wife owners um who had never done this before
they um asked us for again an astounding amount of information and
what we really didn't have the same opportunity you know and i guess that's when i also get upset that if you're going to do it then i want to do it too
yeah exactly
um in terms of the credit yeah i know um we're also going through adoption now in for an adoption and i mean after we gave our fingerprints to the FBI you you look at each other yeah you look at each other and say
yeah
my God
well too late now um so i mean it's it's a matter of anybody can get it any way and how if they really try um
yeah
yeah i i have a particular subject that not everyone agrees with me uh
uh-huh go ahead
uh well by by uh i make my living by uh flying airplanes for for a company and uh as a as a uh an airline pilot i have to take random drug testing
uh-huh
uh-hum
uh-huh
i mean it seems to me the public outcry was for that at the time so i when i finish a a certain flight on a random basis i have to
uh-huh
uh have a written a drug test and and and that's without i uh probably cause
uh-huh
uh-huh
and uh a and in the end now i mean they've tested they've spent forty million dollars and they've found uh i think uh in pilots anyway of something like uh
no it isn't
uh eighty six thousand tests there's only been two guys have come up uh three guys have come up positive and one of them was a bad test so
positive for anything see yeah
see uh and i just started working well for an electronics firm down here i used to be a reporter and then now i'm in corporate communications and uh part of that excuse me was as a new hire that i had to take a drug test and i had never been asked that and i thought
yeah
yeah
drug test right
um i really didn't like it um i i have very mixed feelings about i don't disagree or agree with you um i think i i think that it's well and you're in that field so i don't know but it's
yeah
you know we lived in uh Minneapolis when the Northwest Airlines pilot in the Dakotas yeah that hit the fan like uh you uh you're obviously aware of that um
yeah right
yes i am
i don't know there should be some happy medium in terms of if they're going to do random um i i don't agree with random i guess i would look for a standard in consistency
yeah
you know in terms of maybe at set intervals so that everybody knows what's going on um i don't see a problem with that i do think i see some level of necessity um
in something where people are transporting other people uh only because of the things you've heard about
The problem is the reason i feel that way even to a low degree is because it's the old story the minority make it bad for the you know majority um
yeah i i can understand the public's alarm to it but i guess having done this all my life i knew that there wasn't a problem and and it indeed it has proved out that way but now try to get the damn thing repealed you know
yeah i'm not alarmed
yeah
you can't yeah i know it's um
i guess i feel bad because uh not only that but in some of the instances like you just cited where you have to give your fingerprints i mean what what what happens if you say no If you say no then you're excluded and i doesn't seem the courts
right right it's a matter and that's um exactly what it is i mean that that kind of screening in general is a matter of exclusion um if we didn't give it we wouldn't go to Romania i mean if you hate to say that but that's the way it is
yeah
that's right
it's my feeling also that that that although i i don't know if it's that serious i but that was part of the question
uh-huh
i do feel the courts have have held up a great deal of of our privacy i mean particularly look in in some of the in some of the
uh-huh
uh i notice in some of the sexual cases they've held up a great deal of privacy which i support of course but it i guess with our fear with crime and maybe airline crashes and things like that it does seem that we've
uh-huh
we've slipped and that's eroded or at least those in the market place their everyday life seemed to take that as a signal that you know it's fair game to you you have to answer these questions of course
uh-huh
uh i don't know i i feel there has been an erosion and i don't really know how serious it is except i don't like it
in terms of the privacy yeah that in it and also i agree with that and in the in terms of the question um in terms uh i worked in medical public relations for almost a decade
um
and that was pre AIDS and all the other um things that were probably there but just not excuse me labeled and i have a real problem with medical professionals um
um
it goes back to the things like drug screening but if it's in any level even with the potential to endangerment um and i think this is much stronger than you know pilots or uh train engineers being screened um the transmission of the AIDS virus
uh-huh
yeah
um it it that's a real ethical problem i mean i don't i don't have the answer i i you know i mean i think of the young girl in Florida who well yeah that's was she from your part of the country
or was she from the young girl that uh contracted AIDS through her dentist allegedly and then they proved it yeah i don't i don't know um i don't know if it's the old story that we are killing ourselves in general or what um
What was that
oh yeah yeah yeah
right
well i mean it it just take that that step now where where now we feel there's a need to do that and the next thing you know then
uh-huh
uh there's always the need to to go and inspect lockers of high school students that
oh yeah the i guess the question is uh the the thing for me is who sets the parameters or who has the control you know
yeah i guess so i mean well uh good luck to you you just moved to Texas from Minneapolis
yeah
yeah
i don't hold out much hope for you i think they'll be a cultural shock i mean i was based there a lot uh several times in the service and i was absolutely flabbergasted at the in in at least in criminal law some of the some of the latitudes that the police had but
oh it's it's terrible
i'm uh very seriously not more than just seriously i'm more than likely going to be going to law school in the fall and yeah if i figure out that's still what i really want to do and
oh yeah
the the things i'm finding out are the in terms of things like privacy the way the law is interpreted presented
yeah
um it's no better than journalism um except in journalism it's words um this is very frightening in that uh oh and in uh in Texas they they do they do not require for instance for prospective adoptive parents
um
whether it's domestic or international they're one of only five states that do not require a criminal investigation check
yet if you're caught with let's just say um that somebody who's in need not us but somebody who's need of carting um aluminum beer cans around they haven't touched them they haven't drank them they picked them up off the street and they want to take them to a recycling uh resource
um
yeah
for money or whatever um they've they've been going through a lot of bad publicity here in the last three or four months again um because they've been arresting people like that
well i mean i don't understand if you if you don't if they don't make a criminal check why do you have to be fingerprinted
you know
because um in our case one is at the state and the other one is at the federal level because you have to deal because you have to deal with the IN yeah because you have to deal with the uh immigration immigration service
oh i see oh the state doesn't require it
well that's kind of that's rather that's rather unusual isn't it
yeah it is it's uh the whole thing is i mean there's again there's no consistency you know like in your in terms of you being a pilot and being tested randomly um
i can't see why after a certain number of years or after a certain time frame they can't do it at an interval or you know i mean there just
well i guess i guess the extension of that is why why not the next thing you know we'll just stop a random amount of motorists and then if we really think that drugs are a problem we can randomly stop anybody on the street
they they do that in Texas
oh they do
they don't do it for drugs what they do is they check to see if you've got uh current insurance or they check to to see if you're permits are
yeah well there's there's all sorts of scare tactics i guess to to invade our privacy and
yeah
i know and it's kind of um what's the word i want i don't it's just to me it's just frightening you know i mean the old uh i'm old enough now where George Orwell uh way past the time
yeah
i just going to say nineteen eighty four is come and is come and gone but it's here
yeah
yeah it's exactly true i mean i
and the computers of course helps that The computer abilities store that information
well look at what we're talking now i mean it's look how we're talking now i mean you wonder ultimately what a network of stranger you know
