True Story:
Kenny and I needed passports for the Team Vision Convention Cruise to the Bahamas this spring. The local office hours did not accommodate our schedule, so we drove to Indianapolis Mon. 2/11.
The Castleton Post Office at Bash St and 87th Streets was open for passport processing until 7 pm. We arrived at 5:15 pm in hopes of attending an RTA gathering at the Adams Mark by the airport that meets every Monday at 7:30pm. Piece of cake, right?
WRONG! When one prays for patience you never know how it's going to turn out.
First, the office was severely understaffed. There was only ONE post office worker in line trying to process several people just for stamps. Another post office worker who was doing passports all by herself got frustrated and just quit doing it, and they had to call another man in who just agreed to help out when his shift was originally over at 3 pm.
There were people. LOTS of people in line behind us. Even though the office processing time said they close at 6 pm, the one post office woman who got so upset with the situation looked at me and Kenny and said to us (by the Grace of God!) "Sir, you're the last one we're taking today."
The time? 5:40 p.m.
The people behind us got quite miffed. Several folks drove from as far as 20 miles just to get to that office. One family, interestingly enough, who got cut off had their two young sons with them. She said to Kenny and I that she could not get them out of school to get to the post office by the time their processing branch closed in Noblesville, and the Castleton office, for the 3rd time, had turned them down.
The one poor post office worker who was on "stamps and packages" processed countless people. There were 5 windows open and only 1 person behind the counter. Again this was a whole 2 hours before the post office actually closed, and Monday, according to the lady who got stuck with the job, was ALWAYS their busiest day without fail. But they were consistently understaffed.
Kenny and I offered the family with the two little boys (about 2nd and 3rd grade looking age) to get in front of us. But then a very rude man who wasn't even getting a passport overheard her story and started shouting at one of the post office workers about "Why don't you all see this family? That ain't right! etc. etc. which angered the post office woman even more. She actually came over into the line and got in the man's face, then figured since she didn’t’t want to create an 11 o'clock pm news incidence for the local media she said "I'm done....I'm not doing this anymore...then proceeded to open her own little line on the other side of where passports were being processed to just take letters. She didn't work with the other lady who was by herself behind the counter because her assignment was passports. But she just chose to do stamps because she didn't really want to deal with the situation.
The time is now 6:00 pm. The family, husband wife and kids ended up, for a THIRD time, going home. Time, money, gas, wasted for a third time all for protocol. The post office doesn't care about what people have to go through. Yet the government, because of Patriot Acts and Homeland Security laws enacted by an administration that made poor decisions causes situations like this all over the nation.
By the way, it was very interesting the family who got sent home, before they left, Kenny and I gave them our business card, told them about saving time with our passport service. And they got really happy. They told us that they TOO were RTAs in YTB and were with the Denson Taylor team out of Memphis. (Isn't God's timing amazing?!) We know their Director Steve Sturgeon, the only YTB director in Indiana to date but hey, that's going to change. The state may be slow to recognize but everybody in the Midwest is not slow and WILL be in the Director Circle inside of 2-3 years. Just hang in there...we know you're reading this note! (Smile)...no joke.
Anyway, we prospected 5 people while standing in that line because the situation was so bad. One was a computer developer who was a team leader in his software security company there in the area who traveled all the time and really liked what he saw and heard about YTB; two more were actually Kenny's former students, and two were total strangers
But still, we waited in line 2 hours and 15 minutes before we were seen. We were the LAST ones in the post office along with another lady in front of us. She'd worked all day and the last thing on her mind was how her passport photo would turn out.
When we FINALLY got up there we had our entire info ready because we got our photos (2 for EACH of us) all of our records, etc. just like the directors said. My records were okay.
Then Kenny gets unthinkable news from the man looking at his application and BIRTH CERTFICATE.
HE COULDN'T ACCEPT IT!!!!!
This is when one's Christianity is sorely tested. Watch it when praying for patience.
We asked "Why???"
Kenny was born in the early 50s. At the hospital his parents got what they THOUGHT was an official birth record. In fact, the wording goes like this:
It lists the hospital, the city of the hospital and says "CERTIFICATE OF BIRTH" This certified that Kenneth William Reed was born to (and it list his parents names) in this hospital at (time, date, month and year.--he's older than most people think so I won't bust his delicate bubble by revealing his actual genetic age!)
Then it said it was "In witness whereof the said hospital has caused this CERTIFICATE to be signed by its duly AUTHORIZED officer and its CORPORATE SEAL to be hereunto affixed."
It was signed by hand; the ink was a bit faded but still there in fountain pen blue--signed by the attending physician and the hospital administrator. Kenny has always used this for all of his vital record proof for his drivers license, selective service, college, you name it, until certain administrations came into being, he was okay. For 50--um...something years....it was valid and okay.
But ENTER HOMELAND SECURITY! And ENTER international paranoia. This was not the kind of experience that could be fixed with a Coke and a smile. And it's changed forever for people who can't afford several hundred dollars for family passports. The billions in Iraq that have been spent could have
On the back of the Certificate of Birth, i.e. Birth Certificate, right...It has my husband's name, his (late) mother's name, and it says, and exactly this....
"This CERTIFICATE WILL ALWAYS be valuable in PROVING the date and place of your child's birth and the identity of the parents. It will be USEFUL for proving age and identity for entering school, for beginning employment and securing working papers, for voting rights and jury duty, for proving CITIZENSHIP, for MILITARY SERVICE, for OBTAINING PASSPORTS FPR TRAVEL IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES, for LIFE INSURANCE AND ANNUITIES, for SOCIAL SECURITY and (this is laughable) old age pension, and for proving right to inherit property. . . .
You'd THINK that would be enough. But guess what.....Here's the HOMELAND SECURITY CLENCHER.....
Official registration is at Board of Health (and the city where it's listed.)
Because his OFFICIAL registration was not presented, even though the CERTIFICATE OF BIRTH, the BIRTH CERTIFICATE said it was a document that could be used for all of those things, because he was a baby boomer and those kinds of hospital certificates were passed out in the 50s, and even possibly the 1960s....he was denied filing for his passport because...
But first, a message from our sponsor:
now back to our story....
KENNY'S CERTIFIED CERTIFICATE OF BIRTH DID NOT COME DIRECTLY FROM THE BOARD OF HEALTH IN THE STATE OF HIS BIRTH!!!!
Here is what Kenny's options were: Come back to Indianapolis (a 55 mile trip one way from suburb to suburb) and go to the Vital Records office downtown (about 65 miles from our home)
Then order a birth certificate in person. Then wait for however long it took to get it to him. Then take it BACK to the post office, wait in line again.
OR
The fee is $34.95 charged to your credit or debit card. If you pay by check and don't have a credit or debit card, it gets more complicated. If you want it overnight, it's $52.00 at least.
Since general processing times can run from 2-3 weeks, we had to calculate that we'd still have 5 weeks to go before the Team Vision Cruise Convention if we act fast to get it sent to our home in the worse case scenario.
Kenny opted to have it mailed and since his birth place is just 3 hours from our home, it made sense to him to go on, pay the $35 and get the thing shipped then go BACK to Indianapolis and get it processed early on a Saturday am when they open at 8 a.m. at the Castleton office, or he'll take some time off from work to get it done.
This is SO important to know. We know God lets things happen to us all for a reason. We were in that line so anyone else who chooses to pay attention doesn't go thru something similar.
We gave him a card and he thanked us, told him about the health insurance. Anybody that nice to volunteer after working all day, and knowing they can't go home until 8 pm deserved to get a card.
He also told us things that we did not know! Listen up please....there is a reason for every situation, even waiting in line if we "faint not!"
Second: if you're going to get a passport, do not take the processing time for granted.
This info will be posted by 10 pm EST on 2/12/08 at www.goteamspectrum.com under EZ as RTA NewsBeat. Share it with a friend because at least as of this time, 75 percent of Americans DO NOT HAVE PASSPORTS!
They are MANDATORY, even for children. So instead of people buying their children play stations and Wii (or whatever that crazy game is called that costs $300 and it can't be deducted on taxes, they need to get themselves a business and deduct the passports they have to get anyway, and pay for the passports with money they get from just telling 10 folks they know to book on their website, and consider having their own site and saving money.
It's as logical as one going to work everyday even if the weather is bad. But YTB is such a better deal because you can still get paid, and not have to go outside in the snow and get your car dented, or stuck, or have to drive home in freezing weather slippin' and slidin' everywhere.......ain't that nice?
P.S. The man who volunteered his time (who was supposed to be off work at 3 pm and chose to come back started complaining about how they treated him at his job. But at least he was a happy man who didn't complain and holler at people like the one woman did. He'd make a great team member. We told him about the RTA health program. He was VERY interested! Gave us his name, said if we ever came in there to get processing again and he was there, just ask for him and he'd take us in line early.
To let you in on a secret, Kenny & I decided to pass on that offer y'all. We don't want to end up on the 11 o'clock news with white chalk lines around our bodies.
And people say they don't need the internet....
Hmmph! Y'all better pray!
(How we write off our passports 100% on our taxes)
Share
Print
Save
