Sorry I didn't get to post more new stuff today. Here's a rerun from March 3, 2008…
Friday afternoon, I went to the Department of Motor Vehicles office to get my drivers license renewed. It's customary to make cracks about long, long lines at the D.M.V. and employees who act like Lee Majors running in slow-motion…but I was in and out in twenty minutes and it would have been ten, had it not been for an incident I'll describe in a moment.
Renewal by mail was possible but I wanted to get a new photo taken. I've lost more than 100 pounds since the last one was snapped (99+ pounds of flesh, one pound of hair) and the pic doesn't look much like me these days. I've had two hassles with T.S.A. employees at airports and one with the only sales clerk who actually looks at the photo when you pay with a credit card and the store policy is to check the customer's i.d. It's amazing how many "look" and don't notice that the picture doesn't particularly resemble the patron.
I arrive at 12:15 for a 12:20 appointment and am given a form to fill out and return to the window. When I return it, there's a man ahead of me having an emotional breakdown. He's around 65 (I'm guessing) and he works for a company not unlike Super Shuttle that drives folks to the airport…and even with eye glasses as thick as the Berlin Wall, he has just failed the vision test and been told his license will not be renewed. Amidst angry tears and yelling, he is arguing with a D.M.V. employee who is just trying to enforce the rules and hasn't the authority to do anything else.
As near as I can tell, the argument goes roughly like this: "I cannot drive without a license. If I do not drive, I do not have a job. If I do not have a job, my family cannot pay rent or purchase groceries. Therefore, you must give me a license."
The D.M.V. staffer explains very politely that the eye exam is not something that can just be ignored. It's given for a reason. He's sorry but the applicant had several cracks at it — however many are permitted — and he failed. A supervisor of some sort comes over and the conversation is moved to one side (so I can go about my business) and it is repeated. As I'm waiting for my new photo to be snapped, I can hear the supervisor saying, "The fact that you need the job doesn't change the fact that you failed the test."
All the people who are sitting around and waiting have heard the exchange. They feel sorry for the man whose livelihood has gone away with his vision. They also feel sorry for the D.M.V. employee who was screamed at as if he'd decided to starve the man's family.
Behind me in line, waiting for her picture to be taken, is a lady who I'd guess is in her eighties. "It's so sad," she says. "That poor man." The man waiting behind her says, "Why don't they just give him a license?" To which the woman replies, "Would you want to ride with a driver who can't see well enough to pass the eye test here? That's scary."
I lean over and say, "The scary thing is that he was driving people to and from the airport yesterday, maybe even this morning."
"That's not even the scary thing," the man says. "The scary thing is that he's going to drive home from here. When I'm going through the parking lot, he'll probably be going through the parking lot." Then he thinks for a second and adds, "You know, my company has jobs where you don't have to drive and good vision isn't essential." He pulls out a business card, tells the lady to save his place in line, and goes over and gives one to the man who has just lost his license.
That's all there is to this story. My picture is then taken so I leave and I can't tell you what, if anything, happened as a result. But I'd like to think it will all lead to a happy ending.