Your daily Letter to the Columnist — July 11, 2012
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Unamused at Virginia’s DMV
Thank you for your July 10 column about Cathy Wilkinson’s difficulties in obtaining a new driver’s license after accidentally letting her old license expire. I have had a few problems in that area myself. I hope I don’t bore you too much with the length of my rant.
When I moved to Virginia from Ohio in 2003, the DMV in Christiansburg refused to accept my Ohio birth certificate even with a raised seal and a stamp stating “This is a certified copy of the original certificate filed at the Columbus Department of Health.” I was told that I needed the original copy. And yes, the clerk insisted it had to be the original and I didn’t know I could have asked for a supervisor. I asked the nice people at the Columbus Department of Health if they would let me borrow the original (that is stored on microfilm). They declined. I had a passport so was able to obtain my driver’s license with that.
When my son applied for his learner’s permit in 2007, the DMV in Christiansburg did not have a problem with the certified copy, but the clerk at first refused his birth certificate because his name was typewritten and the G in our last name kind of looked like a C. I did argue over that and his birth certificate was eventually accepted. However when he allowed his license to expire last year, his birth certificate issued by the Columbus Department of Health was no longer acceptable. It had to be issued by the Ohio Department of Health. He had to get another copy of his birth certificate.
Virginia is not the only state making it difficult for its residents to renew their licenses. A friend recently allowed her West Virginia driver’s license to expire. The first clerk in West Virginia would not renew her license without her out-of-state divorce decree. When she was able to get a copy weeks later, the next clerk told her she didn’t actually need that because she hadn’t changed her last name. She questions the security value of the additional paperwork requirements on those who let their licenses expire. If you renew your license on time, you never have to show anything else. Why are the people who are late a threat and those who renew on time safe?
Our problems, however seem very small compared to people who lose their physical licenses and don’t have a copy of their birth certificate. Have a look at the ID Requirements needed to obtain a Virginia birth certificate. Notice the first thing on the list? A Virginia driver’s license! So to get a driver’s license, you need a birth certificate, and to get a birth certificate, you need a driver’s license. While there are some provisions for secondary forms of identification, I can imagine that many people fall through the cracks.
As our federal and state government is increasing the number of activities that require government issued photo IDs, such as boarding a plane, opening a bank account, voting, it is making it more and more difficult to obtain those required IDs. Not letting your license expire is only a first step. Everyone should also keep a copy of that driver’s license in a safe place. I’m taking the next step and getting passports for my kids. And I’ll make sure they don’t let those expire.
Karen Ellingson
BLACKSBURG
July 11, 2012 - 1:30 PM
We are moving closer to identity chips just like our pets
have embedded under the skin. One scan and all your info
is there for the “officials” to view.
Some may call it the mark of the beast,
others my see it as “big brother”.
It would cut down on identity theft, I guess.
One thought though, If the appendage or limb containing
the chip were severed or amputated, would that individual then
become a non-person?
I like the idea of identity chips… less information I have to carry around with me. No chance of losing my driver’s license, my medical records, my allergy list, my health and car insurance information. Alzheimer patients can be found more quickly and lost / runaway children can be reunited with their folks.
Those with mental illnesses can no longer hide that fact when purchasing guns and your convection record will be right there, for anyone who needed to access it.
I think it could be placed under the skin in the neck/shoulder area.
* I meant “conviction record”.
“I like the idea of identity chips… less information I have to carry around with me. No chance of losing my driver’s license, my medical records, my allergy list, my health and car insurance information.”
So, when you check out at Martins, you would feel comfortable
with all this information being downloaded into the Martin’s
computers along with your payment for your purchase?
I will forever refuse to have any microchips or RFID transmitters placed under my skin. We did that with one pesky cat who had a penchant for running off and living a few houses away, but aside from that, the concept is entirely too creepy to fathom. I personally detest the concept, much like I refuse to ever get any tattoos or piercings. It’s not for me, but if someone else wants them, it’s their choice. So as long as such ideas are entirely voluntary, so be it. But the moment any political official proposes it, I’m fighting the effort vehemently.
I know where you can stick yours Lynda….
What nobody has mentioned (that I’ve read anyway) is that when they take your photograph to put on your license in the first place, isn’t that digitized? Can’t they pull up your picture from your old license right then and there? Yep, you look like the guy in this photo alright. It would take a “mission impossible” rubber mask job to make you look like someone else! Talk about redundancy, not to mention common sense.
————————-
My wife let her license expire and didn’t know about the hoops to jump through, so she went back home and got her SS card and birth certificate. The clerk was satisfied with the ID stuff and things were going smoothly til she pulled up my wife’s driving record. The clerk said my wife had two moving violations in the last year and would have to take the written test to get her license renewed!
Yep, you guessed it! She failed the test!
Apparently you can’t miss any of the sign identification questions and she missed the one that showed a car hauler type trailer dragging the road when crossing over a big hump.
We went home and she took the online practice test a couple of times and passed the DMV one the next day.
Im not sure i-d want one either..
but I really think it has possibilities
for the elderly and young.
I dont see anything wrong with putting them
on things like cell phones and cars.
As long as the individual has ultimate control
over them.
I can see the benefit of one..even if just temporary
for a person to use if lets say they might be in fear for
their life or well being.
I can see it freeing up thousands of hours of investigation
every year for various police departments.
So Linda K welcomes the concept of the federal government tracking her every move, all because it would be more convenient for her if she happened to be forgetful once every four-eight years.
How nice, how lemming in a way the federal government appreciates.
And the common denominator among all of these sob stories is … “when I let my license expire…”
Poll: Should people be made to suffer indignities, or punished some other way, or face a firing squad, if they allow their licenses to expire?
Great Britain already has about 1 million CCTV cameras throughout the country. Predator drones will soon be used by law enforcement in the US. Anyone see the new CBS series, Person of Interest? Harold Finch’s “machine” may not be fiction for much longer! Some say, anything goes- as long as you’re doing nothing wrong, you don’t have anything to fear. Realistically though, we must be careful that we don’t cross over into “1984″ & Big Brother territory. The question is, do you trust those who operate & monitor these devices? The old Roman phrase applies here: quis custodies custodiet? (who guards the guardians?)
If their licenses expire, they should have to re-apply for a new license, and possibly re-take the computer-based exam. I think the exam ought to be administered every 10 years anyway, every renewal past age 60. Too many people have forgotten the rules of the road…bring forced to study up from time to time might help. Theres a simple way to avoid the renewal hassle though, renew early. Problem solved.
Lynda K, I like your pre-correction idea better. Let’s track people’s convection records, so we can tell what they’ve been baking.
Excellent point Alfred E!
Dan, I am never surprised at the punitive nature of folks.
3rdFred, that line about “as long as you’re doing nothing wrong, you don’t have anything to fear” has always been used to indict and punish. It worked for the Inquisition and McCarthy and Hitler and The Patriot Act. The genie never goes back in the bottle.
Amazon, Staples, Google, and Microsoft (to name a few) already “track” us and know much more about us than anyone would be comfortable with. Unless you really believe that the Constitution is just a piece of paper, fearing the government knowing you is a little over the top. They already know where you work, how much money you make, where you live, what you own…come on, knowing your damn driver’s license expiration and your hernia scar is “secret info”? You folks never cease to amaze me.
Well dobbs, we already know more than a few are “half-baked”! Good one, even if unintentional Lynda K!!
Interesting that many who desire more government intrusion in their lives complain when the effects are negative to them… particularly when they bring the events on themselves by not following the “rules” that their beloved government has established for them.
I can imagine the posts in 2015, when the complaints are about long lines at the doctor and not being afforded access w/o proper ID… but hey all that aggravation will be FREE…
Often times we get what we deserve (particularly when we ask for it)… welcome to the world of big government…
It can only get better… hope and change…
#11 Dan – No firing squads. But a little personal responsibility goes a long way. They should be fined for driving on an expired license and have to start over as if they never had a license.
Well said OJ. Periodic re-testing should be mandatory. I can’t get over the sheer refusal to acknowledge any personal responsibility here.
“Sure I let my license expire, but I shouldn’t have to suffer any inconvenience due to my own irresponsibility.”
And Dan, please tell us how having to follow the same rules everyone else does amounts to suffering an “indignity.” Drama-queen much?
Use sme common sense. OJ’s thought about everyone being required to retest every 10 years (or 12 since licences are good for four year periods) makes sense. At the same time, a person who has been legitimatyely licednsed for many years and still carries their license with them, but slips up and overlooks renewing for whatever reason, shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel to get the license back. If they met the qualifications for a license last year, they still meet them. A records check to determine if there are disqualifying violations, a standard vision check thaty everyone has to go through periodically, and
perhaps a small fine or penalty for missing the deadline should be sufficient for renewing a license. And a person coming from Ohio or Fla. or any other state who was legitimately licensed in their state should not be required to jump through hoops with birth certificates and affidavits out the gazoo to get a Va. license. Simple proof of residency should be sufficient in that case.
Thanks, Chuck. My dad is a great example of the flawed mentality of not taking responsibility. He’s a staunch, die-hard conservative. Always votes for the GOP, loves his AM talk radio and Fox News. Retired US Navy too.
But, he is irresponsible as hell. He failed to renew the license plates on his truck since 2002, but never sold or got rid of it. When he went to renew his license, the DMV said he owed for all the unpaid registration fees he never paid, before they would allow him to renew. That totaled some $700 by the time all the fees and whatnot were tallied. His response? Pissed off at the DMV for not letting him renew.
That same mindset also has led to his blaming the IRS for coming after him for a decade of unpaid income taxes because he quit filing, while claiming the maximum number of exemptions to virtually eliminate withholdings. Sad thing is, after crunching through a decade worth of unopened letters, utility bills, 1099′s, bank statements, etc…he only needed to have about $150 a month withheld to have avoided it all. Instead, he is now on a repayment plan for about $15k of taxes, and about the same in interest, late fees, and penalties.
And yet, he will swear up and down that it’s the government’s fault.
OJ, good lord. A decade of unfiled taxes and he owes only 15k?
Yeah, he only makes about $30k off his pension, and hasn’t worked a day since his retirement in 1993. So with the low incomeand having state and local taxes to deduct plus the mortgage interest, his taxable income is pretty low. Virginia Beach is a killer for taxes. The irony…when he had his first of two heart attacks roughly when he stopped taking responsibility, his doctors told him to quit smoking. That is his still-continuing almost $200 a month addiction. The epitome of selfishness and weakness. Not even two heart attacks got him to change an expensive and destructive lifestyle choice.
He also owes state taxes, but less than he owes the Feds…we just don’t have that number yet. He complains about his taxes being too high, btw. He also has cable, phone, and high-speed internet services he won’t give up that run well over $100 a month. He will bitch people making bad decisions, yet he is overrun with them. A classic ‘do as I say, not as I do’ person…and it saddens me greatly. I’m helping him right his ship, but until he accepts responsibility for his problems and the terrible decision-making he has done, I’m afraid it will keep happening. Actually, it already has…he first needed help in 2007…and then five years later, when the IRS was sending threatening letters because he kept ignoring it all, he sought help again…after I had already helped him get all the paperwork done to get square. He didn’t learn then, and probably still hasn’t.
#12 In large cities in the U.S. you’re pretty much on camera all the time. And we’re talking private cameras as well as government.
Anyway, this column inspired me to remember to renew my registration online on time. In the past I’ve had glitches or the site has been inoperable but this time it went smoothly. Maybe all that extra money the Rethugs gave to N-G when the system didn’t work right did some good.
I am not narcissistic or fearful enough to believe that the federal government wants to spend its money and resources tracking my every move. I’d feel sorry for the poor guy assigned to my case… He’d certainly have to be on his toes watching me make trips to the grocery store, library, gas station, Home Depot… Wow… What a plethora of information I would provide!
Anyone here have a smartphone? Then, surely you are aware that the ability to track you is already within their capability.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/adriankingsleyhughes/2012/04/21/your-smartphone-allows-you-to-be-tracked-wherever-you-go/
Your thinking is depressing me Lynda. Are you really unable to see the problem?… Once you allow these kind of implants, do you really think the technology won’t keep ramping up? And up and up!
Just like they can shut off a car’s motor via a satellite signal, so it is they could send a signal to shut you off. Imagine 100 years from now and our government (of the wealthy, by the wealthy, for the wealthy) decides to send signals to our embedded chips to kill anyone who protests. Or maybe terrorists or a foreign army hacks the code and presses the delete key on a billion people?
You logic only fits for pets and property, of which we are neither.
#28 I have no desire for a chip and wouldn’t agree to one, but Dave, fellow, you need to chill out. Medication might help.
Dave Gresham
Really? Man, you need to take a nap!
The “chip” that I am in favor of has no ability to “do” anything other than hold information. No one has the capability to “turn off” your pet, who is micro-chipped. It is simply a repository for important information.
I don’t believe it will happen in our life time but I don’t think it will be too far in the future.
We’re actually closer than you think: http://myacutecare.com/index.php/News/Entry/the-care-medical-history-bracelet.html
Lynda K:
2.”I like the idea of identity chips… I think it could be placed under the skin in the neck/shoulder area.”
NEVER! The end is already here if we consent to allowing chips be imbedded in us, I don’t care what limit of information we’re told they’re being used for. It sends chills down my spine just knowing someone on the receiving end of the chip thinks this is a good idea.
John Wilburn writes: “NEVER!”
We said the same thing about gas heat and appliances in our homes 150 years ago. In the 80′s it was ATM cards that were going to ruin us all. We all like to live fully entrenched in our own paradigms until something sets the shift in motion…
@ 31 John, said: “It sends chills down my spine just knowing someone on the receiving end of the chip thinks this is a good idea.”
Me too!
When people believe they have business in a woman’s uterus, there is little to fear from a chip with your identity or medical history on it. The slope slipped long, long ago. Believe it or not, even before Obama.
Lynda K:
“We said the same thing about gas heat and appliances in our homes 150 years ago”
The big difference here is that one is science and safety-testing related and the other is trusting in government related. The two aren’t comparable.
If you want a chip, go for it. It’ll be a cold day in hell before they consentually get a chip on me.
John Wilburn, do you have a “smart phone”? An internet connection? A land line? File taxes? Have a LinkedIn profile? GPS? On Facebook or blogs with your real name? A member of any gun advocacy, activist or civil rights group? Dude, they SOOOOO already have you.
We already have ID via bio-metrics. The ID and medical history chip is the future and for the non-conspiracy people it has many good uses. While I balk at the idea of an implant as opposed to a bracelet, not everything leads to the gulag.
Your lack of trust in the Constitution, Civil Rights and America is sad, but typical of those who see only black and white. There is vigilance and there is the boy who cried wolf. Use vigilance productively lest you turn into a boy no one listens to. Suzie is an example of that here. If she has a valid, truthful, considered and valuable point, no one will ever know. Credibility matters. ESPECIALLY if you are using your own name!
Sandi:
“Your lack of trust in the Constitution”
Really? I’m the one wanting to go back to using it!
Sandi, you’re just one of the sheep. I’m not trying to convince you of anything. There’s no anonymity for me, but the chip is a tool for government ownership. Of course it won’t be marketed that way, but you can bet that’s where it will go.
@ #37 John said: “…but the chip is a tool for government ownership. Of course it won’t be marketed that way, but you can bet that’s where it will go.”
You are exactly right John. Sandi and gdad are missing the point, (which is rare for both of them, in fairness), so the following remarks are for them in hopes of getting them to see what we do…
Picture the past 125 years and look at the staggering advance of technology… planes, cars, telephones, radio, television, computers, microwaves, nuclear science, space travel, etc… So where do you think we will be in another 125 years!
Even today, we live with over 100,000 computer viruses. Ever had one? Duh.
Or look at how many times governments have gone to war, and how it’s increasingly technological.
Or maybe just ask your grandparents to stand next to the microwave oven with their pacemakers the next time you make popcorn.
Your lack of ability to visualize the profound dangers of giving any government access to your “heartbeat” borders on being willfully blind. Nevertheless, closing your eyes to the dangers of Big Brother does not make it go away. Time for you both to re-read Orwell’s 1984.
John Wilburn writes: “There’s no anonymity for me, but the chip is a tool for government ownership….”
It’s the same doom and gloom, fear mongering that the right is always ready to blow. “The government is out to get each and every one of us, they want to take our guns, watch our movements, and control our thoughts.”
This sounds a lot like my 82 year old mother who has a nasty case of clinical paranoia, exacerbated by dementia. She refuses the very medication that could treat her mental illness because she thinks the government and the pharmaceutical companies are using the elderly as guinea pigs.
She has a doctor’s excuse for her irrational thoughts… do you?
Actually, Linda, there is a pretty substantial history of the government and pharmaceutical companies, sometimes working together and other times independently, using various segments of the citizenry as experimental lab rats for drugs, vaccines, and various ‘treatments’…so it’s not far-fetched when it has actually happened.
Sorry, Lynda…didn’t mean to mis-type your name!
Lynda,
I know it’s a bit late in the game, but it sounds like you should START listening to your mother.
John W… You and my mom would make a great pair. She could tell you all about how the staff at her nursing home is poisoning her coffee and you can explain to her how it’s actually a government conspiracy. And when she begs you to remove the sheets that have the tiny, heated threads in them, you can steer her paranoia in the right direction.
Maybe Obama is behind it?
America ‘as I knew it ‘was a wonderful beautiful place to live ;as was the rest of the world. Then it went to hell.The polittitions with a vision and a view with a bigger picture,and deeper pockets. Who gives a shit ? I will survive as long as I can and enjoy life as much as I can and try to make as much change ,for the benefit of the world ,as this media will permit.
I’m glad you aren’t my child, what a rude post against your mother..maybe one day you might be in her position…sicko
#45 You don’t get it at all, pammala. John W is telling Lynda she should listen to a woman who has been diagnosed with clinical paranoia and dementia and who won’t take medications that will help her. First, it’s extrememly weird that John W would suggest Lynda should listen to somebody like that. Second, until you’ve lived with and/or taken care of somebody with those problems, you haven’t a clue.
But then not having a clue is a way of life with you.