Subject:               Dear Sirs and Madams,         Date:               Tue, 02 Nov 1999 23:40:03 -0500        From:               Conrad Hubbard <conradhubbard@surfree.com>     Reply-To:               email@conradhubbard.com  Organization:               www.ConradHubbard.com          To:               sosweb@sos.state.ga.us I am seeking anyone connected with the Georgia government that can possibly help me. I have been experiencing problems with the DPS, the like of which I have never experienced in any other state. I have written the Governor, the Atlanta Journal-Constitition, Creative Loafing, The Department of Public Safety, the Better Business Bureau and every other single agency connected with the governing of newcomers to the state of Georgia and the active discouragement of their settling here. I am attaching my letter, rather than retyping it, in the hopes that somebody can help me. Dear Atlanta Journal-Constitution, I am not sure that I am directing this email to the proper address, or even that news organizations down here in Atlanta even take up human interest/rights stories such as these. However, I am in the hopes that either you can forward my email to the proper person within your organization or even to another news organization if yours does not deal in two-bit stories such as this. I am new to Atlanta, having moved here just this September. I know that Atlanta and the surrounding area is a tremendously fast-growing area, and that this must place some strain on the civil services down here, such as drivers' licensing and so forth, but I must say that as a former citizen of another state I am greatly disappointed to discover that my plight as an outsider seems to be endemic to the newcomer to the area. I have included the letter I sent to Governor Barnes email address below, with the hopes that it represent some of my troubles, however, I suppose further comment may be needed. Please feel free to edit this to fit whatever space requirements you might have if you even decide to do anything with it. Dear Governor Barnes (or individual reading his mail): I have moved to Georgia from the state of Virginia  in September to take a new job down here. I am writing to express my concern at my treatment by the Department of Public Safety since I have arrived. This department in my previous home state we called the Division of Motor Vehicles. Anyway, I spent over 3 hours waiting in a local DPS office to get my license and then was only given a "temporary" one. The individuals working behind the counter were grossly rude and uncaring, and I would be happy to provide their names and so forth if you care to know. But that is not the final disaster! After undergoing a hideously long waiting period simply to get this temporary license, I have now been absolutely infuriatingly stunned by receiving a letter that notes that since my North Carolina license is no longer valid, that my Georgia license will be suspended November 17, 1999. Now, I hope you did note that I was a Virginia resident. I lived briefly TEN (10) (X) years ago in the state of North Carolina, but I have had a valid Virginia license for ten years now. I am completely confused by the assertion that my moving from North Carolina and back to Virgina would have anything whatsoever to do with my license status in Georgia, especially as I have been driving for TEN years since returning to Virgina. Please, see if you can help me out here. My home email is whateveryouwant@conradhubbard.com and my work email is conrad@white-wolf.com . My home phone number is [look it up if you are planning on harrassing me] and my work number is [ditto]. I hope sincerely that others trying to move to the state of Georgia to start new careers and support the tax base are not experiencing similarly horrid problems, but after speaking for, as I noted before, over 3 hours with others in the line at the Department of Public Safety, I am greatly inclined to believe otherwise. It seems that most of us in that line that day at least have the perception that the state of Georgia would rather that we return to our previous home states and leave them alone. We were treated with tedious lack of respect and ultimately, obviously, with disturbing lack of actual service, leading to the necessity to pursue further tries at receiving some sort of "civil" service from our new tax-paid government. From here I move to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and an attempt to let them know just how terribly outsiders are made to feel, one that I can hopefully word well enough to attract their journalistic interest. I hope that in the meantime, while I continue my attempt to correct my deplorable systemic bureaucratic Snafu that somebody with some actual power and desire to "do the right thing" will help me out. A new Voter to your area, Conrad Hubbard Thus went my letter to the Governor. I would also like to note that I observed a few behaviors that shocked me further, and seemed as though they might qualify as direct violations of the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights. A girl who was obviously of an Indian faith tried to get her license the same day that I did. She was informed that she had to remove her head scarf during the picture-taking process. It would seem to me that this is a violation of the freedom of religion guaranteed by our forefathers, but perhaps I am an idealist lost in a world of modern pragmatists who could not care less about freedom and government responsibility to its citizens. Even from a pragmatic point of view, I would like to note that a police officer stopping her in a traffic-stop situation would view her with her head scarf ON and therefore, if the photo represented this, it would actually be MORE accurate. The second thing that shocked me was that upon actually filling out my final paperwork, my previous home-state license Was Seized by the Officials of the State... I could not believe it. This had never happened to me, neither in Virginia nor in North Carolina. The state motor vehicle department was taking my old license before they would give me a new one. That is a direct violation of the Fourth (4th) Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America guaranteeing protection from searches and seizures without a WARRANT. For a moment I almost walked out of the office, before I realized that then I would be illegally driving as they had TAKEN my drivers license. This is absolutely unbelievable, and now given the bureaucratic misplacement of my Georgia eligibility to possess a valid license it is infinitely more concerning, for at least had I the Virginia license in hand to display that one of the states with a sense of freedom and dignity recognized that I knew how to drive a motorized vehicle down the road, I could at least legally continue to drive beyond the November 17th deadline for proving myself to the State of Georgia. Whatever, I might add, happened to "innocent until proven guilty", which of course cannot happen in this case as I have done nothing wrong, legally or morally? I suppose it must have been voted out by some bipartisan committee. Again, please feel free to cut the more freedom-based viewpoints, if you feel that they will be taken as some sort of strange viewpoint unbecoming an American citizen, but please, if you can help me in any fashion by investigating my story or the Department of Public Suffocation (er, I mean, Safety), please, it might even make for a good story. -- Conrad Hubbard Editor of totem (The Roleplaying Game Journal) Author of PATHOS (A Collection of Poetry and Oddities) http://www.conradhubbard.com Copyright © Conrad Hubbard  Back to The Traffic Citation of Christ