The Voter ID Ruse

I tend to not use this space to focus upon the political but recently the Pennsylvania legislature found its way into the voter fraud ruse, enacting a law whose stated purpose is combatting voter fraud which is actually statistically not a threat in our state. Aside from the crass comments made about how this law will throw the state in favor of Republicans in this election cycle, the more practical consideration is how to respond to the self-assured statement that "anyone who is legitimate will have no trouble obtaining ID or already has it." This is patently false.
The case in point is my own recently turned 18 daughter. She is the child with the September 11th birthday. She was born in and only lived in one town in one county in Pennsylvania. She is the biological child of two United States citizens and has only ever had one birth certificate, the one that came in the mail a couple weeks after she was born. She has obtained a US Passport and has traveled abroad with People to People Student Ambassadors. She is an honors scholar at a church related university. She has only ever worked at a church camp where she has not been issued an ID because you do not need one. She was away working at said church camp this past summer when her passport expired a couple weeks before she was to leave to for college.
When she came home and before she was heading off to college she went to obtain a non-driver photo ID in Pennsylvania, the one that would allow her to register to vote.
She was rejected.
Even though under Pennsylvania law a PA ID that is expired is good for a year, a passort that is a couple weeks beyond expiration is invalid.
A high school ID is invalid
And best of all and most important the state issued birth certificate was deemed invalid.
The state issued it in the condition in which it has lovingly been maintained in a lock box and it is invalid.
Because although it has a raised seal, it is not "raised" enough.
You can turn it over and see the embossed imprint but it was declared invalid.
She was told she could drive to a main center some distance away and wait for hours but it "would be a waste of time."
She was told she should just apply for a new passport and for a new birth certificate
and then after that she could return
But by then:
She would have spent the money on a passport, plus the appointment to process it since the last was issued to her as a minor
And she would have to wait for the new birth certificate
And it would be...
too late
Later in the news it was announced that a special voting only ID would be issued for people like her with "faulty" birth certificates
Faulty because of what?
But then came the caveat
You can only obtain this ID IF
YOU HAVE EXHAUSTED EVERY OTHER WAY TO OBTAIN NECESSARY ID
So...
if you can obtain other ID, no matter the cost, and time and waiting and lost hours of your life
...
You cannot qualify

Help us understand how it is that a lifelong, wage earning native born American who possesses identification given by the government is denied use of it?
How can a state issued ID card be valid when a federal ID becomes instantaneously obsolete?
So she cannot vote in PA
I cannot even begin to imagine how frustrating it is for her

And for every person who does not drive, has no employer ID
Who has limited funds or limited mobility?
I know how frustrating it is for me

No one should ever feel like life becomes about doors closing in your face for no reason

There is one thing I can guarantee
The party who thought this was a great way to keep "illegals" from voting has guaranteed a couple things-
she will never vote for your party
she will likely decide to work and use her talents in another state adding to the Brain Drain
she may well go to law school just to advocate for people who are disenfranchised
And if she does
I suspect she will not be nice about it

The World of the Possible

Thanks to all of you who here or other ways have reached out this past week. This has been a week of great upheaval and yet also a chance for me to marvel at all of the good in our world and to be amazed at the changes afoot in my part of it. For younger daughter, we have now had oodles of high tech tests, tests that would not have been possible when I was a child, growing up in the '60's and '70's. It seems for now the answer is an inhaler which we are now trying to master- when, how often. The sophistication of the technology can amaze me, but it cannot replace the importance of people taking the time to listen, really listen to what someone else is sharing. And for everyone who listened to me, and to her, I give thanks to God.
For my older daughter, we are continuing to look for what she needs, but thanks to technology, on the 'Net and through email, I have ideas and suggestions and a plan. In this world of possibility, I can get these things faster, and see more information in depth before I ever pick up a phone. But in the end, it will take people willing to listen to her, to us, to know who she is and what she needs.
This past week we also lost track of my parents after they left here for FLA for two days. Bad weather took out their phone, cable and internet service and jammed cell phone connections. All of the technology in the world was not helping us know if they were safe at home or in a ditch. Finally I remembered another way to reach them, through a friend who was not affected, who was willing to listen and help out.
All of the technology in the world cannot replace that human component. We need each other to feel human.

In this world of possibility is another exciting development that I hope takes us one step farther, not in technology, but in being human, and seeing each other
as equals. I watched with excitement and emotion, the speech Barack Obama delivered at the Democratic National Convention, a speech filled with possibility, and a speech focused upon our humanity and dignity. A speech about the possibility of a way that is not the "same old, same old." Delivered by a man who has lived possibility.
Who has refused to accept the notion that he is "less than."

As a child growing up in the '60's and '70's I remember a long drive across the state of North Carolina in 1969 to go the Outer Banks for vacation. In those days before the advent of high speed interstate, the road meandered through every little town. It was hot and dusty. It was mid-day, as I peered out the window hoping to see anything of interest that would break up the monotony of the drive. As we wended our way through a sleepy town, I saw two African American men walking down the sidewalk. A white man was approaching from the other direction. When he got within some apparently prescribed distance, the black men stopped, stepped off of the sidewalk into the street and looked away while the white man passed. Then they were free to get back onto the sidewalk and continue.

Being curious I asked my parents, one from Philadelphia and one from NC, why this happened. My mother said it was just the way it was. My father said, but it shouldn't have to be. And then the air was stiflingly silent for what seemed like a very long time. Just the crackle of the radio and the brittle tension of two expectations of the world.

This is one of the stories I remembered as I watched Obama. As I watched as a child who heard and believed that the world as it has been is not the world as it has to be. I do not know how this election will ultimately be decided, but to be in a world where the historically unlikely- a woman, an African American are lifted up, and where people have become energized to see beyond the small window, is thrilling. A world of the possible is in our midst, if we are willing to listen, really listen, to share, to help out and embrace the fullness of humanity as it can be, and as God desires it to be.