Getting my First Passport, the SAVE Act and other Confessions

I've never had a passport. It's been decades since I was out of the country---to Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean Islands---and back then we didn't need them. The trip to Mexico was in the 1965. I had a cousin who lived in California and on a visit he took us down to Tijuana where he helped me haggle over the price of a gold watch on a chain that I still have today. It's the size of a silver dollar and has Roman numerals on its face. Tourist grade, I'm sure, but very ornate and pretty and I almost lost it when I took it off during a one-night stand. It was the early '70s and what can I say, we singles did stuff like that. I'm not proud of it but facts are facts. 

The next morning the guy was decent enough to come to the place where I worked to return the watch. He thought it was an antique. I didn't even know it was missing but I was grateful to get it back. I have vivid memories of that return because at the time I was wearing custom-made, orthopedic shoes that laced up the side and they were so ugly the guy couldn't help saying that out loud. In my work clothes I was dressed nothing like my ultra ego from the night before. She might have been 'hot' like the kids have re-branded 'sexy' today. But seeing me in the light of the day, without the glow of a disco ball casting a spell over us, he probably drove way that morning thinking he had more to drink the night before than he thought. Heck, my transformation might have even been responsible for him giving up drinking. If I could rewrite my personal history that's the way I'd end that scene. Note I didn't say I'd rewrite the one-night stand out of drama. Sometimes what we regret doing in life teaches us valuable lessons.

My trip to Canada took place in the late 1970s and we didn't need passports then either. We were just passing through on our way back from Colorado taking the scenic, long route home to Michigan. Mostly what I remember about that trip was that for some reason the people up there all seemed to know we weren't Canadians. To us we didn't look or sound different. I'm old and I also think I might have been to Canada on a trip with my parents when I was a kid but without photographic proof your guess is as good as mine. I gave my oldest niece custody of my folk's photos albums and I'll need a field trip to her cottage to verify my vague memory of standing next to a Canadian flag in a circle of colorful flowers…well, I assume they were colorful. The photo---if it exists---is in black and white. I joke about how at my age when I learn or experience new things old things need to fall out of my brain to make room. Unfortunately, that's probably more truth than humorous banner to cover up my failing memory.

I was online recently reading an article about how the 45/47 administration is trying to make it harder for women to vote with the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act) that passed the House and is working its way through Senate hearings. It will require women who've changed their names after getting married to jump through an extra hoop to prove citizenship. A birth certificate and marriage certificate won't be enough. You'll have to apply to the state for proof that you applied to change your last name to your husband's, no matter how long ago a woman was married. Lord help her if she's been married more than once. Even if the SAVE Act becomes law that part won't effect me because I didn't change my name when I got married. 

But the article got me to thinking because it will require certain kinds of picture IDs I don't have to comply with the SAVE Act as it's written now. Thus was born the burning desire to get a Passport Card. A Passport Card is different (and cheaper) than a regular passport and will get you into Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean but not onto international flights to go else where which is fine by me. My traveling days are all but over but I do like the idea that with a Passport Card I could run away to Canada if the USA goes all out Handmaid's Tale on us. And I also harbor a daydream of going on one of the Caribbean cruises that are filled with thousands of Mahjong players. It's a dream I know I'll never follow through on, unless I win the lotto and can invite a village to go with me.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking an Enhanced Driver's License ID can also get me to Mexico and Canada and be a second photo ID. I missed the deadline to get one that is now required to get on international flights and I don't have the REAL ID either that as of May seventh is now required for all domestic air travel and to get into federal facilities and on military bases. It would have been smarter and cheaper to get the Enhanced ID instead of a Passport Card. The Passport Card and REAL ID can be used interchangeably, but the DMV (where you have to go to get the EID and RID) is busier and harder to get to than our city hall where I have to go to get the Passport Card. That made the choice easier for me. I downloaded the passport application online, got a friend here to take the required photo---not an easy task since it has to be a two inch square photo with a one inch face showing. 

When the Passport Card gets here I'll feel better, knowing I'll be able to produce two forms of citizenship documentation if/when the SAVE Act becomes law. (And I think it will, given that the Republicans are in control of the Senate.) While we're being distracted by 45/47 daily shenanigans, like posting photos of himself dressed like the Pope on the White House account, the creators of Project 2025 are quietly working behind the scenes to freeze as many women out of the next election as they can. ©

 Until Next Wednesday.