Picture This!

Hey Brahs, I'm just calming my nerves after a battle with "the man". Actually it was a woman...but really it's all about the establishment and I get a little irate when people who are bestowed a nano-smidgen of authority treat the general public like they're total morons.

Our story starts with a 77 year old woman attempting to pick up a registered letter from the post office. This particular 77 year old woman is my mother and she has never possessed a piece of photo identification. She has never had a drivers license and she does not own a new healthcard. Here in Canada we have universal health care and our old health cards do not require a picture...if you lose your card or it is damaged you have to replace it with one of the newer cards that does have a photo.
My mother had difficulty voting in the fall due to this lack of photo ID as well and was nearly denied the right to vote. I digress...
Anyway having missed the postal persons knock yesterday my mother had to go to a local postal outlet to retrieve her letter. This letter contained my mothers new passport...which is photo ID. Taste that irony!
At the outlet my mother presented her notice for the registered letter and the woman behind the counter immediately asked her for a piece of photo ID. My mother replied that she didn't have any ID with a photo on it, but did posses several other pieces of ID to verify who she was.
The woman heaved a tired sigh and told her she could not have her registered letter...which contained her passport...which was photo ID.
She did offer a solution though...did my mother know anyone at staff at this particular store who could verify who she was? Or had she ever had any prescriptions filled at their drug counter? If so she could then release the letter to her.
Odd?
My mother answered no to both options and I piped up that I was her daughter and I possessed photo ID and I could verify who she was...I was flatly refused. To which I replied, "That's a bit ridiculous." I gotta say at this point I was getting really pissed off.
I found it hard to believe that someone who had filled lets say my moms medical marijuana prescription or checked her out when she was purchasing an enema could verify her identity, but not a family member with copious amounts of ID.

And then some other broad who was mailing things piped in with..."That's the way it is all over the world."
Number one mind your own business, number the deuce...if you're not going to help the situation cram it with walnuts douche-tard.
Then the female warlock behind the counter started going off on a rant directed at me stating that,"I wouldn't think it was ridiculous if someone stole my identity and then sold my house."
Okay, number one I don't have a house, number the deuce if a criminal is bent on doing something they're gonna do it...number the thrice if you don't know what I look like before you hand over something to me how do you know that picture coincides with that persons information?...How do you know that my identity hasn't already been stolen by someone who has made a fake picture ID? How do you sleep on your pointy hair?

The helpful mouth piece who informed me that photo Id was a world wide phenomenon said to take my mother to get a new health card, because she did that for her 90 year old mother.
Yeah you're right we should get a new health card, since the old one still works, that sounds like a great waste of government resources. Wow you're awesome.

After a few more rude and unapologetic comments from the postal representative (shocking I know!) we left empty handed.
When we got home my mother called Passport Canada and then Canada Post.
They both offered her a list of Id that would suffice (without pictures) in order for her to claim her letter.
She then called the postal outlet and informed the woman she had just dealt with of what she had learned from Canada Post. The woman then claimed that my mother had said she didn't have any ID at all and that she would have happily turned the letter over to her had she produced any other identification.
LIAR!
I was standing right there. The minute my mother said she did not have photo ID that was all she wrote, she presented no options and merely went on to extole the virtues of this requirement for avoiding fraudulent mail pick up.
They argued back and forth for awhile and then I took my mother for round two.
When we got to the counter my mother produced some address Id and went digging for her healthcard...the woman then informed my mother that she was to produce her birth certificate as she indicated on the phone...
LIAR!
My mothers birth certificate was in the envelope with her passport...she had to send the original to get her passport and had made that very clear. Finally after much eye-rolling and soul searching the lady finally relented and settled for a signature. She professed she was very worried about this affecting her job if she was doing something wrong...lady get off your high horse enough already. Finally she asked if she could open the passport to verify that my mother was who she claimed to be. The minute she saw the picture she breathed a sigh of relief that could have been heard round the county.
She then gave us a pamphlet outlining ID requirements and informed me that if eventually I would have to fill out some forms to complete my mothers postal transactions when she was incapacitated. Okay she didn't use the word incapacitated but it was implied and thoroughly inappropriate.

(It reminded me of the little douche at a local funeral home who took me aside after my dad died and told me I should start planning for my mothers funeral...
but that's another story.)

My point is that sure rules are rules but my mother is not the only one to fall into this category of not possessing a photo ID. She is not a criminal. Sure there are white haired fraud artists everywhere but merely asking for photo ID is not going to thwart the cunning of the criminal mind. I'm all about people doing their jobs and doing them well. But if you're working with the public you need to at least try and play nice.
That said I'm lockin' and loadin' the Dove of Hate to drop a curdled deuce of justice on people who let a crumb of power and control go to their pea brains! So watch the skies all of you power hungry fast food restaurant managers, government peons and middle managers...who have let a taste of power taint your environment the Dove has been holding it for a long time and it ain't gonna be pretty!
B-spot on the semi-anti-establishment front!
WHUH!