September: National Passport Month?
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 08.30.05 | 9:32 AM ET
The statistic tells the sad story: Fewer than 23 percent of U.S. citizens hold passports. For a nation whose policies affect every other country on the planet, it’s appalling. We know we’re preaching to the choir here, but you might consider adding your signature to a petition Lonely Planet is circulating to have Congress declare September National Passport Month.
According to LP, the resolution has bipartisan support. Really, what pol in his right mind would stand in the way of such a thing? Forget the warm, fuzzy World Hum stuff about travelers being the best kind of ambassadors. All the representatives need to know is that travel is good for the economy. Just think of the plane tickets and suitcases and Lonely Planet guidebooks world travelers have to buy. Lonely Planet is promoting the cause with a number of events in September, including a free mid-day gathering on the 8th in San Francisco when attendees can have their passport photo taken and listen to world music from DJ Sean Brandt. We imagine he won’t be spinning much Toby Keith.
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
Wayne Bernhardson 09.02.05 | 9:09 PM ET
I notice in the news today that the Bushies are not retreating from their diktat that, within a couple years, U.S. citizens will need passports to return from even the briefest visits to Mexico and Canada. While this offends the libertarian in me, who thinks the less documentation the better, there may be a silver lining—I think inertia is often a factor in our failure to travel overseas and, if more of us must obtain passports, it may occur to us to travel farther afield. That, in turn, might help offset our parochialism.