My nephew (who is 25 years old) told me today that he and a few friends attempted to buy beers with their burgers at a Bar & Grill in San Diego Tuesday night, and they were asked for their I.D. by the waitress.

The point my nephew was making is a very good one. On what basis did the waitress ask the guys for their I.D.? Hmm....could it be that she's guilty of "profiling"? She had no other basis for asking their age other than her personal observation that they looked like they "might" be unde 21 years of age.

But shouldn't my nephew and his friends be outraged that this waitress asked for their identification just based on her observation and a "hunch" that they were underage? (None of them were underage, by the way). Isn't that some sort of age profiling?

My point here is that Hispanics scream "racial profiling" whenever anybody asks them for the proper paperwork and identification which would prove their right to live, work, and receive social services in this country. They say that just because they're Latino, that puts them under suspicion, and they are unfairly singled out.

But just because my nephew and his friends are young and in their early twenties, they got singled out too. And they had no choice but to provide proof of their legal right to drink in the state of California. But did any of them protest or raise a stink? Of course not.

It's just common sense that in order to enforce our laws and apprehend criminals, we have to "profile" on many different levels. And we have to be allowed some leeway with our "hunches".