I Heart Jesse White
When I headed to the Secretary of State's office to replace my stolen driver's license, I was figuring that the whole thing would be a bit of a nightmare.
As it turned out, though, an Illinois "Drivers Facility" is not a bad place to spend an afternoon, especially if you happen to be pregnant. (Or eldery or disabled, I suppose, but those conditions seem fraught with other challenges.)
I took the El right to Clark and Lake and walked into the office without even having to step outside in the rain. (I was tempted to stop off in the Food Court, but I'm kind of soured on Food Courts right at the moment.)
Right when I opened the door, I was greeted by a sign that instructed senior citizens, persons with disabilities and expectant mothers to head directly to the front of the line. The line didn't seem that long, and, I figured, I'm not really that pregnant, so I just waited my turn. (Actually, I kind of wanted to give my free pass to the woman in front of me who was trying to entertain her squirming 2-year-old, but that didn't seem like an option.)
After about a 15 minute wait, I got to the "greeter," explained what I needed and got my deli-style number.
Then I headed to the waiting area and, again, spotted one of the signs that pointed to a specially designated waiting area for those of us who might really need to sit down. At that point, I was half-expecting refreshments to be served.
At every turn, someone offered to expedite my service simply because I have the great fortune to be an "expectant mother." (Not to quibble over details or anything, but I think I prefer the slightly less euphemistic term "pregnant woman." Whenever anyone refers to me as any sort of mother, I immediately suspect that they have some sort of weird, life-begins-at-conception agenda. But maybe I'm just being paranoid.)
All in all, I was completely smitten with my driver's license experience. (Pregnant women: renew your license now!)
So, in a total abuse of my position with the paper, I called the Secretary of State's office to get the inside story on why they are so darned nice to pregnant people. Cynically, I was guessing that there'd been some sort of lawsuit or horrible woman-gives-birth-while-waiting-in-line-for-new-license-plates incident.
But, no.
Turns out, according to Beth Kaufman, a spokesperson for Sec. of State Jesse White, the guy just has a soft spot for us Gestating-Americans.
Back in the '90s, she said, when White was traveling the world with his tumbling troupe, he happened to visit a government office in Japan. In that incredibly polite culture, such special treatment is quite normal. Designated lines and waiting areas for pregnant people are everywhere. (I suspect that pregnant women there are also allowed to eat all the sushi they want, too, but that's a topic for another day.)
Anyway, White actually made a campaign promise, when he first ran for Secretary of State, to bring such courtesies to Illinois and launched the special lines and chairs in 1999.
A cursory review of other states (OK, I called a friend in New York and one in California) reveals that we are leading the nation in making bureaucracy more pregnancy-friendly. In my mind, this really does make up for an awful lot of corruption and inefficiency.
Comments
I'd like to add that even for non-pregnant, non-elderly, non-disabled people the DMV in Illinois (at least at the two Chicago locations I've been to) are a dream. The people who work there are usually very pleasant, the lines go fast, and the whole process is pretty streamlined. It's one of the things that make me proud to be an Illinoisian; we have the two best Senators in Washington and the best DMV. And the White Sox.
Posted by: Andrew Wyatt | May 25, 2006 01:33 PM