Birth Certificate Irony
As many of you know, I am an over the road truck driver. I am currently with a company called Prime Inc out of Springfield, Mo. This company requires that drivers provide a Birth Certificate for two reasons. 1. Prime hauls freight into Canada, and drivers going there need a passport. The Birth Certificate is required to obtain this document. 2. Prime hauls freight into and out of United States ports. As a security measure, the ports now require drivers entering and exiting the ports to have a Transportation Workers Identification Card, or TWIC. A Birth Certificate is also needed to obtain this document.
I came here to the home terminal in Springfield to get some work done on my truck. I dropped my truck off at the shop, then went to wait on the shuttle to take me to the motel. While waiting, I was talking to a driver who was here for orientation to come to work for Prime. He had taken a 3 and 1/2 day bus trip here from Washington State. This driver was originally born in the State of Hawaii. He had brought with him a copy of his Certification of Live Birth. Unfortunately for him, Prime Inc would not hire him with the documentation he had. He was trying to get in touch with the appropriate department in the State of Hawaii to get his Certificate of Live Birth, but he kept getting a busy signal. When we parted ways, he was talking to his father in Hawaii trying to get him to go pick up a copy for him.
What he did not do was create a website and post a picture of his Certification of Live Birth and tell Prime to go look at that. He did not get fact check to create a red herring, claiming that the document is real (which it well may be) all the while ignoring the fact that it is a document that doesn't qualify him to get the job for which he is applying. He did not hire lawyers and pay them hundreds of thousands of dollars to obfuscate and try to tie up Prime's decision in a court so he could get the job now and worry about the Certificate of Live Birth later. He simply tried to get the doccument as soon as possible.
There are a couple of potential reasons for the difference in behavior between the two individuals. It could be that this driver is not as wealthy as Obama, and doesn't have the option of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to avoid going to get a fifteen dollar piece of paper. It could also be that this driver has better sense to partake in the aforementioned behavior. But what was clear to me from this drivers actions is that he was born in Hawaii and could legitimately produce the document. Why? Because he called the office to get it, and when that didn't work, he called a family member to try and get them to obtain it for him.
President Obama's actions in this case were much different. When the story began to get traction last October 24th, President Obama's Grandmother suddenly became "gravely ill" and he headed off to Hawaii. Obama said she was on her deathbed and he had missed the chance to see his mother when she was on hers. Obama said ''I want to make sure that I don't make the same mistake twice,''. Two days later, on October 26th, Obama's birth records were sealed by Hawaii Governor Lingle.
Notice the difference here? Now, I am not saying Obama can provide the document, and I am not saying he cannot. I am saying that when most people need to provide a document, they try to obtain it rather than trying to hide it. I am saying that when most people have a needed document, they pay the minimal fee for the paperwork rather than paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to avoid getting it. I am not saying that Obama's sisters are lying when they say he was born in Hawaii any sooner than I am saying Obama's Grandmother is lying when she claims to have witnessed his birth in Kenya, Africa. I am not in a position to say who is lying and who is not. I can, however, observe the actions of these two individuals, both needing the same document for the same proposes yet acting in two entirely different manners. The question becomes, which makes better sense to you? I have personaly concluded that if Obama has the Certificate, this is just another example of this man being unable to apply simple common sense to a basic problem to create a practical solution.