Nellie's Life

Been to the DMV lately?
Has anybody been to the Division of Motor Vehicles out in South DeKalb Mall lately? I have...3 TIMES this week with nothing to show after 15 hours of running around. It's insane how inefficient our government is. I wish Starbucks or WalMart would take over so that we could have one effecient system that can do everything and has an office every 3 blocks AND STILL MAKE MONEY so our taxes won't go up.
I'm trying to help a homeless friend, George, get his Georgia ID card and it is a nightmare. A Georgia ID card is indispensable to a homeless person. You can't even get money for returning cans without a Georgia ID! There is no way he could traverse the bureaucratic mess by himself. He can't read and nobody has the time to spend with him to get his paperwork right. He's tried for the past 5 years. Even I'm confused. Here's a short diary of our journey so far.

-Get George's Birth Certificate online from Alabama for $40. Find out he had wrong birthdate all these years which is why he couldn't get his birth certificate for the past 2 years. George is elated that he has some form of ID to prove who he is.
-Spend 4 weeks trying to figure out how to get a Georgia ID without a permanent address in Georgia. George finally hears about Crossroads Ministry which has aworked out a deal with the Georgia DMV to help the homeless get Georgia ID's.
-TUESDAY: Head to DMV with paperwork. Spend two hours in line only to THEN GET A TICKET with no guarantee you will be seen that day. Give up and decide to try on Wednseday.
-WEDNESDAY: Get at DMV office at 9:30 and realize line is already at least 4 hours long. Head home. Fortunately I have an abundance of patience and help George not to give up.
-THURSDAY: Get at DMV at 8:30 and wait 2 hours in line. Finally our number is called and we think we may finally get somewhere. Find out the birthdate on his birth certificate and Social Security are different. Told we have to go to the Soc.Sec. Office around the corner to get it fixed..
-Soc.Sec. office is just as busy as the DMV. Take ticket number and wait an hour only to find out they screwed up the ticket numbering and we have to take a new number. Wait another two hours in line.
-Soc.Sec. lady tells us she needs a form of ID in order to change his birthdate. CRAZINESS! We are trying to get an ID so that we can get his Soc.Sec. fixed and get a new Soc.Sec. card, but Soc.Sec. requires that you have a form of ID. It's one infinite cycle. It's no wonder homeless people get stuck where they are. After pleading with the lady to help with with the next step, she says that a GRADY Hospital ID card or medical records will suffice as ID. This is stupid to me. You need no form of ID except a birth certificate to get a Grady Card, and yet the Soc.Sec. office excepts it as valid ID. Why don't they just accept the birth certificate in the first place as valid ID since that is all the Grady Card needs? Our nation is built on sand...
-I have to mention I had Gideon with me the whole time and he has been a great boy, finally falling asleep in my arms.
-We drop Gideon off at home and head to Grady Hospital to get George's Grady ID card. Wait an hour before being helped. At this point George is very testy and almost blows our chances by getting offended at the lady who copped a slight attitude at George. I calm George down and explain to him that he has got to work with these people and be patient. They are his only chance of hope. He's tired of "being treated as a nigger by other niggers" who won't help him out. George has alot of issues with is own race. George behaves and we finally get his Grady ID card. George's spirits are returning as this is the first form of ID he has had in 5 years.
- Head back to the Soc.Sec. office just before it closes. We are able to avoid the line and go directly to Mrs.White who helped us before. At this point I expect something else to block our path. She accepts the Grady ID card and says she has to verify the birth certificate with Alabama before she can change the date. Of course this can't be done today. We thank her and tell her we will get back with her tomorrow. That is where we are at now...TOmorrow we will try to finish this mess.