Michael Mayo The Sun-Sentinel

May 9, 2010

Michael Mayo
The Sun-Sentinel
200 East Las Olas Blvd.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301

RE: “License to frustrate” – Some comments on your column about the travails of dealing with the dreaded DMV.

Mr. Mayo,

Before opining on whether bureaucrats are efficient or condescending or polite or just plain shits attention must be paid to the following:

“He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent
hither swarms of officers, to harass our people
and eat out their substance.”
The Declaration of Independence

A good complaint in 1776.

Shall we stipulate that is still valid today?

Having said that I must add that my last trip to the DMV was handled quickly and efficiently. I would add that humor and manners were there but that might get the clerk in trouble with her union.

Did I say union?

I paid dues to a union that represented men doing hard physical labor. All the union bosses had names ending in vowels. I later negotiated with the UMW. These men would come out of the ground for lunch and put 20 or 30 rounds into the mountain for dessert. I marvel at how the word union has become so debased.

There is some humor in your column about clerks saying that they only follow orders. Wasn’t that what Everyman said just before he cut Thomas More’s head off? It seems that following orders was a common defense at Nuremberg, wasn’t it?

DMV clerks have the unchecked power to make life miserable for the supplicant, a person drowning in obsequiousness, standing before them. A rational system would take them off salary and put them on straight commission. It seems to work at the Broward County Commission save for the fact that those grifters still draw salaries. The lines would clear as if Moses commanded the Red Sea to part. People would leave the place smiling with the proper documents in hand. That’s a change I could hope for.



I suggested during the final days of the health care debate, that’s the one where Speaker Pelosi said “We have to pass the bill to see what’s in it”, that the most fertile recruiting ground for the soon to be mandated death panels would be the DMV. After that the Post Office. Finally, the IRS.

Churchill said, “Be of good cheer. All will come right in the end.” You can say that if you have other people standing in line for you.

When asked why an old license couldn’t be used to verify identity, the response was prompt and to the point.

“No, sir,” said the DMV worker.
“Not according to the
Department of Homeland Security.”
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Having spoken of ancient documents, you may want to take a peek at the 9th and 10th Amendments of the Constitution.

By default, that’s what Arizona did.

Kevin Smith