DMV Rant
Hey, I know that it's been quite a while since I have actually written something, that I have actually completed, and that I feel worthy of publication. Well, I'm back, and I hope that I can follow suit with a list of other rants. Anyway, here goes...
Ok, it seems to me that things get more ridiculous in this, our land of the free, on a daily basis. Bureaucracy runs rampant every where you look. For instance, the new "compliant" ID/drivers license. I went in June to get mine and, as per instructions in the renewal letter, I brought my birth certificate, my current license, and a utility bill to prove who I was and where I lived. No problem. I was in and out of the DMV in all of twenty minutes. Piece of cake.
Now, it was a very different story for my wife, and I'm sure that her experience is not unique. In addition to her birth certificate, current license, and utility bill, and because her name changed when we were married, she also had to provide a copy of our marriage certificate. Ok, not so big a deal. However, because she had been divorced prior to our getting married, she had to provide a copy of her divorce decree. Fortunately she had this and because it also stated her maiden name, which was the same as the name on her birth certificate, she figured she was home free....Ha! says I...Son of a...so and so, said she. (Not really, she doesn't talk like that at all)
It didn't matter that all the information was provided. She was required to produce a copy of her first marriage license and that was almost forty years ago. Who in the hell would keep that document after all that time? Ok, some people would, but I think the majority would not. So, she was given a number to call in Dover where, for a mere $25, a copy of her first marriage certificate would be mailed out to her in not so short order. So, a week after her first visit to the ever so fun DMV (she had to go after work which meant going on Wednesday evenings) and for an extra $25 added to the regular license renewal fee, she was finally granted her shiny new "compliant" Id/drivers license. I really pity women who have had several, or more, marriages. I can really imagine the phrase, "Going Postal" and it's correlating actions, being replaced by the phrase, "Going DMV" with the similar actions being attributed to it.
What gets me is that, one afternoon during that very same week, I bought a new hand gun. I walked into a local gun shop, provided my license and vehicle registration, and within fifteen minutes, my particulars were perused by the state and federal governments and, after my life history was figuratively strip searched, I was permitted to go home with a shiny new hand gun. Why can't the DMV do the same thing? If the state and federal government were to confirm my wife's identity and current address by the same process, it seems to me, that this should be good enough for renewing a drivers license.
I don't get it. I simply don't get it. (Actually, I do get it, but a rant about all this nonsense being caused by a few idiots who feel compelled to try and beat the system; and the system being compelled to make it harder to beat the system, at the cost of we, us everyman and everywoman, who try to just get along...and so on...Well, that's for another time.)
Science fiction is becoming reality. I believe, that in my life time, what's left of it, every one will be required to have a bar code, containing a person's life stats, their entire history from birth on, will be tattooed on the back of one's hand. I believe, and fear, that this is entirely possible. I also believe that I am getting more paranoid the older I get. So only time will tell. And I'd rather not listen....
That's the end of this rant. It's one of many going round and around my brain...what's left of it. Probably more later. Meanwhile, ladies...good luck and god speed....B.
Ok, it seems to me that things get more ridiculous in this, our land of the free, on a daily basis. Bureaucracy runs rampant every where you look. For instance, the new "compliant" ID/drivers license. I went in June to get mine and, as per instructions in the renewal letter, I brought my birth certificate, my current license, and a utility bill to prove who I was and where I lived. No problem. I was in and out of the DMV in all of twenty minutes. Piece of cake.
Now, it was a very different story for my wife, and I'm sure that her experience is not unique. In addition to her birth certificate, current license, and utility bill, and because her name changed when we were married, she also had to provide a copy of our marriage certificate. Ok, not so big a deal. However, because she had been divorced prior to our getting married, she had to provide a copy of her divorce decree. Fortunately she had this and because it also stated her maiden name, which was the same as the name on her birth certificate, she figured she was home free....Ha! says I...Son of a...so and so, said she. (Not really, she doesn't talk like that at all)
It didn't matter that all the information was provided. She was required to produce a copy of her first marriage license and that was almost forty years ago. Who in the hell would keep that document after all that time? Ok, some people would, but I think the majority would not. So, she was given a number to call in Dover where, for a mere $25, a copy of her first marriage certificate would be mailed out to her in not so short order. So, a week after her first visit to the ever so fun DMV (she had to go after work which meant going on Wednesday evenings) and for an extra $25 added to the regular license renewal fee, she was finally granted her shiny new "compliant" Id/drivers license. I really pity women who have had several, or more, marriages. I can really imagine the phrase, "Going Postal" and it's correlating actions, being replaced by the phrase, "Going DMV" with the similar actions being attributed to it.
What gets me is that, one afternoon during that very same week, I bought a new hand gun. I walked into a local gun shop, provided my license and vehicle registration, and within fifteen minutes, my particulars were perused by the state and federal governments and, after my life history was figuratively strip searched, I was permitted to go home with a shiny new hand gun. Why can't the DMV do the same thing? If the state and federal government were to confirm my wife's identity and current address by the same process, it seems to me, that this should be good enough for renewing a drivers license.
I don't get it. I simply don't get it. (Actually, I do get it, but a rant about all this nonsense being caused by a few idiots who feel compelled to try and beat the system; and the system being compelled to make it harder to beat the system, at the cost of we, us everyman and everywoman, who try to just get along...and so on...Well, that's for another time.)
Science fiction is becoming reality. I believe, that in my life time, what's left of it, every one will be required to have a bar code, containing a person's life stats, their entire history from birth on, will be tattooed on the back of one's hand. I believe, and fear, that this is entirely possible. I also believe that I am getting more paranoid the older I get. So only time will tell. And I'd rather not listen....
That's the end of this rant. It's one of many going round and around my brain...what's left of it. Probably more later. Meanwhile, ladies...good luck and god speed....B.
Labels: Rants
posted by Bob Parker | 8:04 PM
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