by Anita Field,
Bastard Nation
Executive Committee Member
Ask anyone on the street, "How would you define history?" and you'll most certainly get replies containing the words, "the past, what came before, old stuff." They're all correct, of course.
Random House Dictionary defines history as "the branch of knowledge dealing with past events...a continuous, systematic narrative of past events as relating to a particular people, country, period, person, etc., usually written in chronological order."
The California birth and death indices are in written form. Both indices record past events relating to California citizens and both are written in chronological order. The state has deemed this data important enough to collect it, print it, and make it available to the public for nearly one hundred years. And now, along comes a piece of legislation that seeks to remove all this historical data from the public domain.
SB1614 is now before the California Senate. If passed, this bill will lock away nearly a century of history from the voters of California. SB1614 reads:
"It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to protect the confidentiality of birth and death record indices."
The legislators’ use of this phrase, "To protect the confidentiality of..." contains an unspoken and false assumption - that these records have some inherent confidentiality that need protecting. These records are public records, and would remain public. This bill would create confidentiality where none had existed before.
What SB1614 really means is that the public will no longer be able to go to a library and peruse these volumes of historical data. It means that the birth and death indices will be locked up - sealed away from any public scrutiny. It means that only a select bureaucracy will hold the keys; only they will decide to whom the doors should be opened. It means that California citizens will no longer be able to sit down with the ledgers and see for themselves.
SB1614 is being hailed as a bill that will do away with identity theft.
Good buzz word - but not a good reason. That is because there are no documented cases in California of either the birth or death index being abused in such ways. There are no recorded cases of these indices being the cause of identity theft. According to the First Amendment Coalition, most identity theft occurs through the literal theft of mail, purses and wallets by friends, relatives, neighbors and strangers -- not from having the birth and death indices opened to all.
If criminals are not using the birth and death indices, then what groups of citizens are using this resource? Genealogists, of course. In America today, genealogy is listed as the second most popular pursuit, right after gardening.
Historians use the indices, too -- scholars who want to learn and write about the people of California in various periods of the last century; historians who examine trends about where people lived and how long they lived.
Researchers in the field of Public Health use the indices to document and chart possible patterns of epidemics. Some use the data to study the epidemiology of environmental hazards and the socioeconomic effects on public health.
Adopted people who want to access the only true record of their births and identities; they too look at the birth and death indices. And lots and lots of ordinary people - Mr. or Ms. Citizen - who wander into a library and find that it's interesting to pore over old documents. It's fun! Good old American curiosity at work -- curiosity that helps us learn.
The other hot button being used to get this bill passed is "confidentiality." Whose confidentiality, I ask? History is history. Facts are facts. Never forget -- these are public facts and always have been. They are not just events of private concern. The facts contained in the birth and death indices are important to our society as a whole.
Look down the road a bit. SB1614 could be the tip of an iceberg. If passed, then we all need to ask ourselves, "What's next?" What other historical records will be deemed "state secrets?" Old telephone directories maybe? Naturalization records perhaps? How about real estate transactions, tax assessments, felony records, marriages, divorces? Once one freedom is taken away, it becomes so much easier for a government to get the next one removed, and then the one after that. Look to history to see how totalitarian governments come to power.
SB1614 is a bill that isn't really about identity theft or confidentiality. Don't be fooled. This bill is about the state of California interfering with the free flow of information to all of its citizens. This bill will rob Americans everywhere of freedom that has been theirs since 1905 - public access to the California Birth and Death Indices. Please don't let it happen.
(This feature appeared in the Summer 2002 issue of the Bastard Quarterly.)
Copyright 2003 Anita Field
All Rights Reserved