A Story about Bureaucracy

When I returned to the great state of Texas in February of 2007 from my grad school stint in Cincinnati, I did not immediately handle the change of identification from a Kentucky (enter banjos playing) driver's license to a Texas driver's license (enter the tune to "Texas, Our Texas" or "Deep in the Heart of Texas"). Naturally, the expiration of the Kentucky license crept up on me, coincidentally being brought to my attention by a TSA agent as I attempted to travel somewhere. The Kentucky licenses expire some years and one month after your birthday of that year, which actually meant I got a grace period, too. So, mea culpa. The failure to renew in a timely fashion was certainly on me.

Off I go to the DPS, everyone's favorite place to visit in Texas. I bring the expired license, which of course, has my photo on it, thinking that a state-issued ID would be the key piece in starting the Texas license process. In addition to this, I bring the other required documents: social security card, auto insurance, and I think I even brought one of my bills to prove my home address. Upon my arrival, I was informed that this expired official identification was an invalid piece of (primary) documentation to get my license (I could use it as a secondary piece), therefore making it a moot point that I was there. I still remembered my Texas DL# (and still do, but couldn't tell you what my current TXDL# is) that I'd had, at this juncture, for almost 20 years. The woman said she could look for me that way, but alas! No record of that number was found. I got some explanation involving a story about computers and info being redone, etc.

At this point, I was told I would have to get a certified copied of my birth certificate. I proceed to go onto Tarrant County's vital records section of the website to locate the process for getting the appropriate embossed copy of my birth certificate. A regular ol' copy was not gonna do, no sir!! Here is where it gets good so pay close attention now. In order to get my official copy of my birth certificate, I needed to send the office a photocopy of a photo ID and a SASE for it to be mailed back in. You get it?? The same ID that would not be accepted, in person, at the DPS along with a plethora of other documents could merely be photocopied (with no other supporting documentation) to get the official birth certificate. Granted, the application requires you to provide information that would confirm your identity: mother's and father's full names, mainly. Still... Really!?

My little story about bureaucracy exists to prove a point: government at any level does not need to keep growing. This is one of my greatest fears as an American. How many departments of stuff do we really need? And within those, how many levels of management or authority do we need? This goes from a school district to the town hall to the Fed. The more people who work for the government at any level, the more tax dollars are needed to pay these people. And yes, I'm well-aware that my salary as a public school teacher is derived from taxes. If you think I'm unnecessary to America's prosperity, let me know and we'll get together to figure out how to privatize/corporatize all of American education. Perhaps the Fed can reduce various departments and allow states the right to oversee certain things. I realize the Federal government is needed on some level (see: FDA, military, etc.). Still, as citizens of this fine nation, we need to push back when it comes to government expansion. It's all about the government that governs the least, and that's hard to do with so much of it.

So that's my two cents on bureaucracy. It's wasteful, inefficient, and costly, and it rarely makes any damn sense. Be well, my friends. I'll be sending good vibes so you don't have to become a victim of bureaucracy. No one here wants all those fingers in their pie. :)