"Capt Lou" wrote in message
...
When the Coast Guard was transfered into the Department of Homeland
Security,
so was the Coast Guard Auxiliary. Now all auxiliarists have to be
fingerprinted, and if they want to volunteer as crew or for other jobs,
they
have to pass a security background and criminal check. I know an
auxiliarist
friend of mine who had long hair and was told to cut it. Does anyone feel
that
the government is going a little overboard for civilian citizen
volunteers?

Absolutely not. If you're volunteering to be part of a government
organization that has certain grooming standards and other rules that
separate the professionals from the people who say "would you like some
fries with that," then obviously you have to comply with those standards. If
you don't want to comply, then you don't belong there. See ya.

What about the auxiliarist who has been volunteering for the past 15 or 20
years? Is he or she a security threat?

I don't know, is he/she? They probably didn't run any criminal history
checks on volunteers 15 or 20 years ago, and who's to say that he/she hasn't
committed a crime in the last 15 to 20 years? I don't know about you, but I
think that the U.S. has been too lax on some of their security issues
(evidenced by 09-11). I think I'd rather have intensive screening of ALL of
our country's government employees regardless of their time in service to
avoid any domestic terrorist issues. If thev've got a clean record, then
they've got nothing to worry about.

Maybe it is time to consider the U.S.
Power Squadron and tell the USCGAUX enough is enough! I hear that 60% of
the
auxiliarists in my division will not submit to the fingerprinting. That's
a lot
of dues paying members dropping out!

Hmmm. WHY won't they submit to fingerprinting? If they've got nothing to
hide, what's the problem? I fingerprint people on a daily basis. You know
how long it takes? About 2 minutes. Maybe there's a reason they don't want
to be fingerprinted, and if that's the case, then good riddance. Being a
police officer assigned to a tactical unit and a former Marine, I take
security very seriously. It's about time our government did, too.

--
-= swatcop =-

"If it wasn't for stupid people I'd be unemployed."