I don't know what it costs to get a copy of your birth certificate, but I'm sure it's a nominal fee. Some years ago, my brother in law moved with his family to Arizona. After they got there, they found that they had to show their birth certificates to do almost anything in that state, which they never had to do in Michigan. They had to send home to get their copies and, after that, they just carried them in their wallets or purses and didn't think anything of it.
My mother gave me a copy of mine when I left home, and I carried it in my wallet for years. When I started developing back trouble, I was advised to make my wallet as thin as possible, so I put my birth certificate and a bunch of other stuff that I never used in a drawer and forgot about it. When I was looking for work after the paper mill closed down, one of the places at which I applied wanted to see my birth certificate, so I dug it out of the drawer and put it in the folder that contained my resume and other job search stuff. There it sat for decades, until I applied for Social Security and they wanted to see it. Well, I had forgotten where I had put it and couldn't find it, so I Googled the Cook County Clerk to find out how to get a new one. They said it was an easy process, and I seem to remember that the charge was something like 15 dollars. Then I remembered where my certificate was, so I never did have to get a new one. I had already applied for a new Social Security card, but it turned out that my old one was in the same folder with my birth certificate. I don't know why I'm telling you all this, but it seems that, in this day and age, everybody should have a copy of their birth certificate and Social Security card and not forget where they put them. Who knows, you might run for President of the United States some day, and then everybody will want to see stuff like that.
Okay, so you might have to travel a little distance to get your state ID card, but you would have to do that anyway to register to vote in the first place. Before the Michigan Secretary of State took over voter registration the township clerks used to do it. Township clerk is a part time job in these parts, and most of them work out of their homes, so you would have to phone the clerk first to find out when they would be home, otherwise you might make the trip for nothing. With the current system, the Secretary of State branch offices keep regular hours, which makes it more convenient. The only time you have to change your voter registration is when you change your address, and then you have to change it on your driver's license too, so you would be going there anyway. Oh, that's right, all you poor Democrats don't have driver's licenses, well you must have some way of getting your asses around! In the cities you have busses and trains and, in the rural areas you have your family, friends, and neighbors who can give you a ride. You have to travel about once a week to get essentials like food and beer anyway, so just stop at the Secretary of State on your way through town. How hard can it be?
Okay, time to segue into a new topic. I was thinking about this the other day, but I don't remember if we've talked about it before. Oh well, you never get tired of those old classics. Answer me this if you can: If big money buys the elections, and all the rich people are White Republicans, then how did we end up with a Black Democrat for President of the United States?
By the way, I finished that book today, and it was so much fun to read that I was sad when it was over. I'm sure you would like it too.
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