Coming back from St. Thomas, I was asked for my passport in order to re-enter the mainland. Of course, having been under the impression that I did not need my passport to travel to the island, a U.S. territory purchased in 1917 that’s reachable by domestic overseas flight from JFK airport in New York, I hadn’t brought one. One low-grade scene later, I’d talked the U.S. border control agent into accepting my D.C. driver’s license as proof of citizenship, and to let me back in. And while I am grateful to have been allowed to return to the mainland, it does seem to me that either the border agent was being overly strict, as the state’s tourism authority says U.S. citizens only need government-issued photo IDs to travel there and back, or else overly lax, in terms of allowing a traveler to come to the mainland U.S. with only a state driver’s license. Either way, a system by which a U.S. territory allows the use of easily forged U.S. driver’s licenses to enter the mainland while also not having particularly enforceable standards about who is on the island in the first place — St. Thomas has a lot of coast line, and a lot of boats sailing thither and yon from tiny, semi-private coves all day long, as does St. John — seems like an invitation to mischief.