Not a form of identification..

That's actually what it says on your Social Security card. It was never meant to be carried around and flashed as proof of identity or even your SSN.

And yet, there I was at the Department of Public Safety and they flat out refused to give me a drivers license because I didn't have my social security card. I told hem how ridiculous this was, that I should be more than fine with my VA driver's license, my current US passport and my official state issued birth certificate, not to even mention my state employee photo i.d. But, no, they needed the freakin' card, or a letter from the Social Security Administration with my name and SSN on it. Cripes!! Don't they know about identity theft??? Don't they know that Texas has the second highest rate of identity theft (after Arizona) and that actually carrying around a social security card puts you at incredible risk.

I tell the state police officers how ridiculous it is to require an actual social security since anyone with any decent computer skills could probably create one. (Get real, man, my freshman year of college every dorm was making a different state driver's license.) Well, they tell, we've been trained to identify counterfeits. Just for the record, my card was issued in 1970, federal laws never suggested that social security cards employ anti-counterfeiting measures until 1983.(I did my research.) I'm saying my original card could easily be recreated on photo shop and no one would be the wiser. And it's not like they're going to put my SSN on the TX license thereby creating an i.d. with the SSN and my photo. It became illegal to put SSNs on driver's licenses in 2004. (more research)

My social security card, for the record is safely filed in a fire safe at my parents house at the other side of the country. After leaving the driver licensing place following a full blown hissy fit, I called my mother to suggest that perhaps we should have just let Mexico keep Texas. It would have worked out better for everyone!!

And please!! They're on a state server on the state computer system. They have access to the same ridiculous AccessHR (taking the Human out of Human Resources) so they could have simply had me log into the system to verify my social security number since we had already established that I was in fact a state employee. And what's the point of verifying my SSN if they're not going to trust their own freakin' databases and their own employee verification process???

Have I mentioned that I hate meaningless illogical rules that are enforced just because they exist not because they make any sense at all? The social security card is undoubtedly about documented vs. undocumented immigrants, that's what it was about in Virginia ten years ago. But anyone who has ever gotten a constitutional primer knows that being born in the U.S. makes you an automatic citizen (exhibit A: birth certificate) and well, generally, the passport only goes to citizens as well. And since these guys are so well trained to identify fraudulent documents, they shouldn't have any issue verifying the authenticity of my documents. No? Whatever.

My father is coming to visit next week, so he dug out my social security card to bring with him so that I could go back to the stupid Public Safety place. I so wish I could bring my father with me when I go back, but I'll be going directly from work. You have to understand that while my father is really a big old teddy bear, he had this ability to convey a very severe level of intimidation just by crossing his arms across his chest and looking stern. It can be incredibly useful at times.

What on earth made me think I could get my new driver's license on the first try anyway??? And on a day that I happened to have gotten my hair cut during my lunch hour (complete coincidence ~ I had no idea what evening the place was open late when I scheduled the hair appointment 6 weeks ago.) My sister's theory is that they took one look at my hair and decided there was no way they were going to take a driver's license photo when I was having a good hair day, so they just had to come up with some road block.

And here's the real gem. Once you jump through all their silly hoops, they don't actually give you a driver's license. They give you a receipt (extremely bogus and unofficial looking, I might add) and tell you that you'll receive you license in the mail in the next three weeks. WTF??? Do they have only one laminater in the whole state??? So, basically, I will be traveling less that a week after I get this crap taken care of ~ and just for fun, when they ask for photo i.d., I'm going to present them with the stupid receipt, at least in the TX airports. It will be a quiet form of rebellion mocking the state system. (I will, of course, also have my passport, but I want to see how they react to the freakin' receipt first!!)