A few months ago I was out in St. Charles shopping for party food at an IGA and the cashier had me scan my thumb into a little device as an electronic signature. I thought to myself, here we go down the sci-fi identity tracking slip and slide, but that was the last I saw of the technology until now. I have an appointment tomorrow with a company called Identix that is going to create a digital record of my fingerprints and run a federal background check on me. This is the third of these kind of checks I’ve had to go through on my path to becoming a certified teacher. The other two were a perfunctory five bucks each with matching ink stains on all my digits, but this one is coming in at fifty five dollars. Shouldn’t the people who want to investigate you pay for the investigation? I’m afraid our future is going the way of the British legal system, guilty until proven innocent. It’s just another pain in the ass hoop in a state where I’m sure some politician’s brother owns a company called Identix.