This is a followup to my diary of this past Sunday, Voter ID: Why It's a Pain In The Ass. In that diary I explained some of the incredibly ridiculous roadblocks I've encountered in my multi-year, multi-hundred dollar (so far) quest to obtain legal identification since the PATRIOT Act rendered all of mine invalid due to a provision requiring all forms of state and federal ID to match the name on one's Social Security card exactly. Which mine do not.
Today my husband had a work cancellation, so he went with me to the regional SSA office in Asheville [NC] to get things finally straightened out. I'd hoped. Three weeks ago we'd traveled to the state DMV on the other side of our county (another 40 miles in the opposite direction) so I could attempt to get a state ID using the name "Joy" that is on my SS card, since I'd succeeded last summer in getting SSA to approve my filing for retirement benefits at the age of 62 (because I haven't been able to work for the past 8 years due to this problem). I'd succeeded by means of appeal of the Asheville office's denial of benefits by arguing that the name "Joy" is on the high school transcripts along with my birth certificate names, and school transcripts were legal for ID purposes back in 1967 when I'd gotten my first SS card. The last name had changed in 1969 when I got married.
The DMV once again refused to let me get state ID in the name on my SS card because SS cards are STILL not legal forms of ID, and I have not used "Joy" on any legal IDs since my husband joined the Navy in 1971. I have instead used my birth first name, my maiden name, and my married surname. For everything from driver's licenses and bank accounts to voter registration and legal papers (lawsuit, adoption of a daughter, etc.). The DMV told me to have SSA change the name on my SS card. Again.
So we got up early and made the 40 mile trek to Asheville to be there when the SSA office opened at 9:00 am. We were about 50th in line, so it was after 11:30 when my number finally got called. Long waits are a perpetual problem at the only SSA facility in Western North Carolina, although they have more than a dozen face-to-face agents and a crew of clerks and supervisors always on duty. We knew this due to having had to make this same frustrating journey a dozen times over the past 8+ years while attempting to get the problem fixed, then just to get my benefits once I turned 62. My husband, grandson, or one of the daughters (both live in Asheville) always have to give up a day of their lives for the cause, because I do not have a valid driver's license since the last one expired and they wouldn't renew due to mismatching SS card name.
First the good news: I was NOT informed ever so rudely by the agent or supervisors who have so steadfastly told me over the years "You Do Not Exist." Hopefully someone mentioned at their latest retreat that it wasn't getting the laughs it used to get, as we the people get ever more and more frustrated by the fact that state and federal government agents refuse to serve us reasonably and with compassion. I am very thankful to young Mr. Johnson (today's agent) for being nice, and trying very hard to help me.
The bad news: Neither Mr. Johnson, two supervisors on site, nor the SSA wig they called somewhere else for help could, despite all their desire, actually help me. Their computers have no minds or hearts, and human beings have no power to override the computers. Ah, well.
This should NOT have been difficult at all. But then, it's always been that way since the U.S. Congress declared me non-existent in 2001 (as amended in 2005/06). Again, I came armed with my birth certificate, my FS-240 from the State Department (birth of American Citizen abroad), my marriage license, and my original school transcript with the name "Joy" on it. Just to establish that I'm the same me I was last July when they accepted (on appeal) all those forms of ID for my benefits. All I needed done was a name correction, not a name change (for which I'd need a court order, divorce papers, or a new marriage license). Nothing has changed, all the names in their file on me are still the same as they've always been. I am still here, just as I've always been.
You'd think it would be simple. That's what the judge told my lawyer a couple of years ago (an expensive waste of time) when he refused to grant my petition for legal name change because all the names before and after are already my perfectly legal names. Nobody needs to change their legal name to their legal name, we were told. All I needed was to drop the name "Joy" that is not on my birth certificate or marriage license, and use the first, maiden and last name they've already got on file in accepted IDs from way back.
But NO-O-O-O. I was told that to change the name on my card/account, I now needed two (2) additional forms of legal ID that they do NOT already have on file! Like a driver's license. Which I don't have and can't get. Or a doctor's medical record showing my name and dob, but I haven't been to a doctor in 20 years (haven't needed one) and old records won't work. Besides, my insurance is $5,000 deductible, and it would cost me $150 just to walk into a doctor's office or clinic just so I could get that paperwork. I'm out of spare change for this useless quest, having already spent nearly a thousand bucks, not counting the 8 years I've been barred from working in my profession because the names don't match.
Think about that for a moment. Have you ever had a doctor demand a current valid ID when s/he creates a record for you? I never have. I could give them any damned name and they'd accept it. So it's kind of like a note from Daddy. So how come my husband sitting next to me in the SSA cubicle doesn't count for attesting to who I am? Can I get a note from my auto mechanic? One of the grandkids? Some preacher somewhere? Of course not.
I explained to Mr. Johnson a total of four (4) times that I do not want a name change, I merely want a name correction [thank you, SSA-affiliated Kossack Achillios0311 for the hint, I did try very hard to make them understand, without any luck]. Using names they already have accepted and on file.
The computers refused to accept it, no humans could override it, so I am in exactly the same non-existent limbo this afternoon as I was yesterday and every day for the past 8+ years. After getting home and eating a bunch of Tums and breathing deeply, I've calmed down enough to write this update and will be penning my second appeal tonight for mailing tomorrow. I will send it to the same appeals person who overrode the refusal for benefits last July, hoping she has the power to rectify this too.
I will be sending a copy of that appeal, along with a personal appeal and a link to this and my last Kos diaries to the subject to both my Congressional rep (who is a Republican and doesn't keep a local office) and Senator Kay Hagan. Since I cannot directly sue the U.S. government [SSA] even if I had the money to do so (and I don't), that's my absolute last hope. If it doesn't work out I guess I'll turn myself in to INS and demand to be expatriated to the Philippines (I was born when Dad was at Subic Bay during the Korean War) at government expense, having been declared an official non-person here in the U.S. where I have lived happily and legally since 1952. Until the damned PATRIOT Act.
At some point toward that end of my long and frustrating quest perhaps the mainstream media will take notice of my plight, realize that millions of American citizens - mostly elderly, minorities and women - are in exactly the same boat since the idiotic PATRIOT Act declared us all non-existent. Most simply don't know it yet, haven't had to show any ID that now require SS card match before it will be accepted. In states (like mine) where new Teabagger-inspired Voter-ID laws take effect in 2016, millions are going to find out they don't exist, and aren't going to be very happy about it.
I'm honestly really tired of all the run-around. It's a Catch-22 designed into the law for which there appear to be no remedies. Today I even took my latest, unopened Social Security check so the agent would clearly see that I am who I am, and make the very simple correction to my card/account name. That was not forthcoming and if this second administrative appeal bears no fruit I am done for. My government will have killed me off - literally, in the legal sense - for the great offense of... nothing. Nothing at all, except having existed at all and worked hard all my life and paid my taxes regularly.
Sorry. Got to end this now, can't see to type because my eyes are leaking again. Sigh.