Who in the heck thought up the Enhanced Driver's License?
Something I've said more than once in my time as a county commissioner is, “I am the government, and I understand why people hate the government.”
For me, the latest example of this is the Enhanced Driver's License. You may not know what that is – there aren't very many states that are doing it. Basically, it's supposed to be a little better document than a regular driver's license. It allows you to travel into Canada and Mexico without a passport if you're driving or on a boat. When flying, you still need a passport.
It's time for us to renew our licenses and I talked my wife into an upgrade. I'm for anything that will reduce the bother of getting from one country to another. The website said you needed six different things to qualify. She went in with her passport, a property tax statement, utility bill, her original Social Security card (I still can't believe she still had it – I think I lost mine in 1979) and the new one that showed she changed her name after we got married in 1975. I think she might have had a bank statement and an income tax form as well.
She came home, defeated. Turns out they wanted our marriage license as well, and maybe some other stuff.
Here's the thing. An enhanced driver's license is not nearly as versatile and useful as a passport, but a passport isn't good enough to get one.
Can someone please explain that to me?
I sort of get the concept. If I was a plumber in Lake of the Woods or a carpenter working both sides of the border in Texas, I can see why it would seem like a good idea to have a driver's license that let me cross the border every day, as opposed to having to carry a passport. That makes sense. But to get a passport, which is better than an enhanced driver's license, requires proof of citizenship and a photo ID.
That's two things. As opposed to six.
My guess, after being an observer and participant in government for about 45 years, is that someone who was used to just bouncing across the border got fed up with having to carry a passport and complained to an elected official and that official tried to solve the problem. But the thing about working in government is that if you follow the rules exactly you’ll never get in trouble, but if you cut a corner here and there you might get in trouble. Over time, that leads to studying everything to death and loading every initiative up with requirements that end up causing paralysis.
It’s like remodeling your kitchen and saying, “We're only going to do this once, so we better do it just the way we want,” and then spending twenty years planning, only to discover that your new kitchen will cost thirteen billion dollars so in the end you just quit and decide to cook over a campfire in the garage.
There are many things going well in the country right now, and some things both here and around the world aren’t looking good at all. But something I don't think we're paying nearly enough attention to is how it seems harder and harder to do big things. And there is plenty of blame to go around, and if we’re pointing fingers we can point in every direction.
I'm not going to get an Enhanced Driver's License; it doesn't seem worth the bother.
But I’m still going to fret about how hard it is to do big things.
Do not bother with the enhanced license! After much ado, I finally received the enhanced when the opportunity arose. Now it was time to renew next month. So I grabbed my enhanced folder and headed to the office. Alas, 2 of the documents were not considered current. I went home and brought the requested documents, along with a couple extra for good measure. Everything was approved!! I received my new license in about 2 weeks, and there was absolutely no evidence of an enhanced license. No extra numbers or codes etc. I decided I would just accept my Class D senior citizen license as it must be fate! To top it off, 2 weeks later I received a notice that my license needed to be renewed in December! These famous words came to mind- We are from the government and we are here to help you!!!! Really????
Al