Just Another “Your Papers Please” Moment

I have read both serious and humorous accounts of DMV offices but something quite casual happened yesterday in my excursion to that dreaded epitome of “government efficiency.” Though they obviously should have anticipated more people as the day before had been a holiday, nevertheless they had only the usual amount of employees and it was a two-hour wait. To their credit the ladies were pleasant and attempting to be efficient in a rather inefficient environment. I gathered some information about the difficulties of their particular situation, but they were attempting to handle the large amount of people and computer glitches as well as they could. 

The pleasant young lady who finally worked her way through the large number of people to handle my driver’s license was quite diligent in her job. She might be described by Eric Peters as a clover, however I would hold out hope for her.

So what sent a trickle of fear down my spine?

After fingerprinting, picture, and a scanning of my life’s history, she handed me a regular sheet of paper, with my personal information on it. She noted it was merely a temporary driver’s license and I could expect my “official” one to arrive shortly.

Then she added, “Since you are new to our state, don’t worry. This paper is sufficient for your identification whenever you are out and about. It will work just fine with the police.”

I did not say anything as #1 I was in shock, #2 the shock was on too deep a level to communicate with her, and #3 people were still in line and it was almost 5 o'clock.  

“Whenever I am out and about?" I needed to be assured that as long as I had this temporary paper on me I was certified to be properly vetted? A strange pit of the stomach fear engulfed me as I walked out to the car. Later, my feeling of fear turned to anger. Now, my thought was, “What have we come to when merely being 'out and about' requires one to always carry ID.” 

For this I am not only blaming the Democrats who have craved a "National I.D." for years, but also the Republicans who in the last 20 years have increasingly and voraciously agreed to every additional assault on individual liberty and privacy they could.

There were only a few Americans who objected to Social Security and most accepted Social Security cards, for at the beginning people were solemnly promised they would never be used as Identification Cards. All but a few “crazy libertarian types” approve of State Driver's licenses, though I remember when some states did not even require such things. 

More recently, people in both the Republican and Democrat political parties enthusiastically accepted it all: the Patriot Act, NDAA, E-VERIFY, sanction of the corrupt TSA, militarization of local Police, excusing police brutality, approving of torture, ignoring of habeas corpus, drones and even ...wait! Why am I telling you? If you are reading this in American Daily Herald or other publications who consistently stand against totalitarian abuse, you undoubtedly are already well aware of these egregious statists programs. Excuse me, I was carried away. 

It is just that the pleasant young lady who processed my ever so necessary driver’s license was conscientious, cheerful, helpful and well meaning; no beady eyes or cruel sneering lips, rather attractive, in fact. 

In her assurance to me that I was now “legal” and now allowed to move out and about, she was so matter of fact, and that dear reader, somehow, made it far worse.

Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0(Flikr)/Gabriel White