Of Birthdays and Driver's Licenses

Today, February 3, is my birthday. And in Michigan, you know what that means. No, I'm not talking about moaning about six more weeks of winter because the Ground Hog saw his shadow yesterday. The Ground Hog never sees his shadow in Michigan on Feb. 2 because the sun never shines during the winter in Michigan so that predicator is totally worthless in our state.

No, I'm talking about renewing my driver's license. I was able to do it by mail before leaving town for a week, and when I got home my brand new license -- good until my birthday 2012 -- was waiting for me in the mailbox.

My husband retrieved the mail, opened it, and tossed the license on my desk without a word late last night. I didn't even notice it until this morning (February 3, 2008).

And that's when it hit me. A driver's license is so inconsequential, so taken-for-granted, by U.S. citizens like me that it didn't even rate a mention. Not even as exciting as receiving an entry in the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. Just a driver's license.

Yet for other people, driver's licenses are something to fight over. Americans are divided over whether undocumented immigrants should be allowed to get driver's licenses.

And in Michigan, Secretary of State Terry Lynn Land has taken such a stiff-necked position that she won't even issue licenses to people who are here legally and temporarily, but are not U.S. citizens -- such as foreign students, corporate executives, even professional athletes here on temporary visas.

I guess Land and her fellow Republican, Attorney General Mike Cox, figure it's not important to know whether such people know Michigan laws when they get behind the wheel and take to the roads with the rest of us. And what does it say to businesses from other countries that might want to open operations here that their employees could not drive -- in the home of the automobile industry!

But the American Civil Liberties Union is preparing a legal challenge to Land's position. It is looking for people who are barred from receiving licenses under the policy who would be willing to sign an affidavit and be named as a plaintiff in the suit. Other plaintiffs may be businesses whose employees are impacted by the policy.

Interested people may contact Mike Steinberg, the legal director of the ACLU
Michigan, at 313-578-6800.

Help if you can.