So we finally got our paper ducks all lined up in a row, and applied to renew my passport and replace Ernie's.

Turns out that it's not just lame clerks.
The competent and helpful folks at Multnomah County told us that it's new rule from above, they don't make 'em, they just do their best to explain them and help folks comply.

A driver's license is sufficient photo ID, but a state ID issued by the DMV is not. You need secondary ID. (Secondary ID is anything with a photo or signature - credit card, libary card, VA card, work ID, military ID.)

Here's why I think this is both wrong and dangerous:

1) It unfairly discriminates against people like seniors and disabled veterans.

2) It encourages people to get/keep a driver's license even if they don't need one (or shouldn't have one). This means more unsafe drivers on the road, and more accidents & injuries like Ernie's.

3) It puts privately created "secondary ID's" on par with official ones, making fraud easier rather than harder (more kinds of ID to check) and makes corporate sponsorship equivalent to national security.


Mom says I'll get over being upset by this, and it will be a funny story in 20 years.

She suggests getting a debit card instead of a credit card, if that's all it takes, and you don't want to spend beyond your means.

But I'm "het up" about it, and for now I seem to be staying that way. I think this might be the best time to nip this fascist trend in the bud. Might as well take a stand about it now, because in 20 years it may be too late.

I like the people from the wilder edges of our nation: fishermen, loggers, family-owned businesses, rural laborers, crippled-up old street artists, charming shining-haired widows, oddball educators who like to keep a fountain pen in a briefcase and walk to work in the morning. I don't think these quiet, hardworking citizens deserve to be treated as second-class because they drive a boat or a bicycle or ride a bus, instead of driving a car.

Not all of them served in the military; they serve in other ways. Few of them work on "secured" job sites where ID badges are de rigeur. And yes, scandalous though it may be, they don't necessarily all care for the library. Some do spend their paychecks in cash, and save under the mattress, instead of borrowing and lending in a bank.

And frankly, I don't want credit card companies deciding who gets approved for an ID. Their track record looks a lot less sterling lately than it did a decade ago.

Yes, it's possible to work around it. It's always possible. But in this case, it's taken us almost 3 years of frustration, including:
- 6-8 month paperwork delays at the VA,
- three address changes and the accompanying updates at the DMV, involving multiple visits due to changing paperwork regulations;
- one or two Social Security card re-issues, what with the name change and the moves,
- a replacement birth certificate, and
- calls and visits to three local passport agencies.

The problem with papers that you have to carry all the time, like our state-issued ID or driver's license, is that means that they can be lost or stolen at any time.

And if your identity does get stolen, the current system seems to be operating on the principle that suspicion is the same as guilt.

Ernie was not able to vote in the last presidential election, because his name was once used as an alias by someone we know (who is now in prison). Someone, somewhere, probably using a computer, connected the dots and decided Ernie was incarcerated and ineligible to vote - or recieve VA disability payments.

Ernie's private financial information was included in a letter informing "him" of this decision, sent to the person in prison instead of to Ernie's address of record.

Luckily, the prisoner is on good terms with us, and alerted Ernie right away. This prisoner also wrote a letter to the VA to tell them of their error, and apologized again for using Ernie's name.
Ernie spent the next week and a half on the phone with the VA, and they issued a "finding" that Ernie would not lose his disability payments. But who knows what ripples are still propagating in the security databases, tarnishing Ernie's good name.
A con artist who happened to find Ernie's ID in the street could easily have pocketed the information for future use. If we hadn't known the prisoner personally, our first clue would be when the checks stopped arriving by automatic deposit.

So on the one hand, we have the government handing out Ernie's social security number and bank account routing info to a known felon. And on the other hand, we have Homeland Security demanding to see his library card becore they'll allow him to get a passport - subject to the judgement of the passport officials, of course.

I think it worked better the way it was before.
I'd like the right to see my files and any evidence against me, before it's sent to someone else.
I'd like to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and to know that my government treats all its constituents with equal care.
I'd like my access to services like passports to depend only on a small number of identifying documents that every US citizen can obtain regardless of financial, physical, employment, or other special status.

(And while we're wishing, I'd also like to get my filing cabinet in order so we never, ever have to go through this again!)