"Do you have a New Mexico passport?"

[Floyd R. Turbo]

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Gavin Clarkson, a recent candidate for New Mexico secretary of state, experienced a one-of-our-50-states-is-missing moment earlier this month when applying for a marriage license in the nation's capital.

Clarkson, who lives in Las Cruces, and his then-fiancée visited the District of Columbia Courts Marriage Bureau on Nov. 20 to apply for a marriage license. 

But, once there, the couple encountered a small problem, Clarkson said. The clerk wouldn't accept Clarkson's driver's license – from New Mexico – as proof of his identity. Rather, the clerk, who mistakenly believed Clarkson was a foreign citizen, said he would have to provide an international passport to get the marriage license.

After Clarkson objected, the clerk went to check with a supervisor, who confirmed Clarkson would need a passport.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/11/29/las-cruces-resident-prove-new-mexico-statehood-washington-dc/2158889002/

[hatrack]

1. It's not getting any smarter out there . . .

.

[MineralMan]

2. We are truly doomed. The Know-Nothings have taken over.

[malaise]

10. A genuine kakistocracy

WTF!

[MineralMan]

13. The education system has failed.

In elementary school, when I was a boy, we learned all of the states, their capitals, and had to be able to correctly label a blank map of the United States with the names of each state.

Today, no such things are taught at all. It's embarrassing.

[malaise]

14. The business school culture rules

It's so sad.

[MineralMan]

15. Sad indeed.

Today's educational philosophy is not interested in producing people who have a strong basic knowledge of general things. It's all targeted on specific goals. General education is no longer generally offered.

[llmart]

37. I've also seen the ridicule people are subjected to who have a liberal arts degree.

Back in my day, the people with a liberal arts degree were extremely well-rounded, worldly and had an actual logical thought process.

[geardaddy]

38. I get that all the time.

I have a BA in East Asian Studies, but had to take all sorts of general education classes in order to graduate. People often say, "What kind of worthless degree is that if you don't use your Chinese or Chinese history in your work?"

[MineralMan]

79. As one with such a degree, I can't say that I've ever been ridiculed for it.

It has helped me enormously in a wide range of endeavors.

[Aristus]

28. Same here.

My Dad was career Army, so I attended DoD schools. I knew all the states, their capitals, and their locations on the map by the time I was seven.

[dalton99a]

3. "The clerk complimented Clarkson on how well he spoke the language."

[ProudLib72]

44. That happened to me more than once when I had NM license plates

Drove over to CT for grad school. People would compliment me on my English! I just played along.

[liberalmuse]

4. I grew up in New Mexico.

A lot of people think it is part of Mexico. The US education system has been failing us for more than a few decades.

[ChazII]

12. Arizona is where I live and I could not believe

the number of twits who thought that New Mexico was part of Mexico. I totally agree with your second sentence.

[appalachiablue]

41. A few years ago, a young couple/college students were trying

to return home to DC after a hiking trip in AZ or NM. A rep. at the airport was confused by their DC drivers licenses, did not know that it was US and asked around whether they could fly. Because of the screw up, the couple almost missed their flight home. Swear to dog.

[treestar]

71. I wonder if they think New England

is part of England!

[Nevilledog]

22. I also grew up in New Mexico.

When my sister and I were little we tried to become pen pals with kids that lived in Pennsylvania. I remember opening the envelope and having a nickel fall out. The accompanying letter asked if we could send them a coin from our country.

At least the post office knew where New Mexico was.... They always successfully delivered the letters to us from an aunt in Minnesota addressed to Albert Turkey, New Mexico.

[rusty fender]

53. LOLOLOL!

Albert Turkey I’m from Santa Fe and I often use nicknames for ABQ when referring to our largest city—thank you for a new one!

[Nevilledog]

63. You're welcome.

[customerserviceguy]

25. I've spent most of my years

in Washington (the state, not the nation's capital) and since I moved to the East Coast in 2007, I have been appalled at how little Easterners know about anything west of the Mississippi. Other than what they learned from watching "90210".

[yonder]

47. Thread buster:

Bigger states, open spaces, fewer people in the west probably translate to "way out there." Hell, Idaho's Owyhee County is larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

This lifelong Westerner has always wondered why Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, Illinois, etc. are called the Midwest. Doesn't make sense to me. I would call those the Mideast, whereas Idaho, Utah, Wyoming should be the Midwest. Then again, I think of the Carolinas, Maryland, Virginia, etc. as the East, whereas they're considered The South.

One day, when I'm in charge, I'll proclaim: Pacific States, Intermountain West, Central Plains, Industrial East and Atlantic States as the new designations.

Except for Texas, I just don't know what to do about Texas.

[appalachiablue]

49. In 1981 after Reagan was elected, many visitors & tourists from CA

and the West came to sightsee in DC. At the time I was working at the Smithsonian and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. I couldn't believe how little tourists knew of US history, geography, culture and science.

In the next few years visiting families kept asking me if I was Irish, several times. I didn't know why and was puzzled. Years later I thought maybe a tour operator told them that the 'East' had many people of 'Irish heritage'- like Ronnie Reagan of CA. Lol. Boston and NY are noted for their prominent Irish communities, not as much for DC, other Eastern cities.

We inherited a love of learning and travel from our parents. I've visited Seattle several since 1979 to see close friends, and have also enjoyed travel to SoCal, Idaho, Wyoming and the SW. So vital that people meet other Americans and people from other counties. Isolation and exclusionary thinking are killers, a real death sentence to cultural expansion and strong societies.

[triron]

35. I have met people in the deep south that think that.

[certainot]

39. republicans use a limbaugh station, kkob, to sell their crap all over the state

like to elect the former governor and that's how they got their bullshit voter suppression crap

and that station would fall apart if the UNM community told the university to find an apolitical radio station, not kkob, to broadcast sports on.

really stupid

[HopeAgain]

52. Growing up in Abluquerque we used to get New Mexico Magazine

which had a section about these types of encounters every single month.

[Volaris]

57. Oh for God's sake..it's godamn NEW MEXICO. As in 'Lincoln County Cattle Wars'

As in BILLY THE KID. WTF is seriously wrong with these people...and this particular group works for the Federal Govt?? How the hell did THAT happen???

[brush]

5. Continual repug cuts in education has continuing effects. DOH!

[Hermit-The-Prog]

69. GOPers hate education

GOPer electioneering:
1. Public schools are failing us -- we must cut funding to these liberal indoctrination schools!
2. We must set up propaganda centers, er, voucher schools, er, charter schools!
3. Goto 1.

An ignorant electorate is more malleable.

[marybourg]

6. Yes, even before the internet era, there were

enough incidents like this reported every month to fill the back page of a NM magazine.

[hlthe2b]

7. During Atlanta Olympics, phone ticket callers from New Mexico were sent to International line

so, I can't say I'm surprised. Our populace, on average, is intensely ignorant.

[Solly Mack]

8. People are scary.

They can laugh about it now (and that's a good thing for them) - but that kind of ignorance could cause a lot of trouble for people.

[Initech]

9. "Oh so there's a *NEW* Mexico!" - Homer Simpson

[MFGsunny]

11. It's heard so often in NM ....

..... that we have actually lost count when it hit in the millions of times.

[BumRushDaShow]

16. And remember, this happened in Washington D.C.

[MineralMan]

17. And what of New York and New Jersey?

Does one need a UK passport for those places in Great Britain to prove identity.

[Roland99]

18. There *are* some states that haven't updated DL to new designs

and passports are needed for certain transactions

Does NM fall under this?

[dalton99a]

26. New Mexico is Real ID compliant

[lunatica]

31. You have to show your birth certificate in order to get a drivers license in NM

You also have to show at least one government provided ID such as your Social Security card or a Drivers license from another state and you have to prove you live there by providing utility bills or something that shows your New Mexico address.

In New Mexico your drivers license is proof of citizenship.

[Stuart G]

19. There is a movie called, "Idiocracy"...I guess it all has come true..

Here is a link about this movie...From IMDB....If you haven't seen it, it is available at most libraries and other
sources.....Simply put, it describes how the idiots have taken over the world. It is a comedy, but maybe
it is totally true............Idiocracy....Internet Movie Data Base............1 hour and 24 minutes ..............
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/

[Aristus]

29. I saw it. Once.

It's the most abysmally depressing, appalling 'comedy' I've ever seen.

I was in a deep, depressed daze for a week or so after I saw the film.

Never again...

[lunatica]

32. It used to be a movie but now it's a documentary

Sad

[Buns_of_Fire]

75. And I STILL think the TV show "Ow! My Balls!" would be a hit! nt

[rzemanfl]

76. That movie was considered insulting to Dubyah voters.

It did not get promoted because of that.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

20. I live in New Mexico, and our state magazine

has a feature called "One of Our Fifty is Missing" with these tales every single month.

It's never happened to me, but if it did (someone thinking I don't live in the United States because I live in New Mexico) I'd laugh in their face, find a map, and ask them to see exactly what keeps Arizona and Texas from crashing into each other.

I do happen to carry my passport card with me all the time, although there are people out there who think anyone can get a U.S. passport just by asking for one.

[pamela]

23. Beat me to it.

I type too slowly. Your post wasn't there when I started my post. Love that magazine and the "One of our 50 states..." feature, though.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

24. Great minds, right?

[pamela]

21. One of our 50 states is missing

New Mexico magazine has a section in each issue called "One of our 50 states is missing." It's filled with stories like this.

[rsdsharp]

27. I was told, in 1980, by someone in Houston, Texas

that there is no such state as Iowa.

[Pope George Ringo II]

33. I once heard a story about Samuel Goldwyn, of MGM studios

Apparently he was warming up to a promising actor and asked the young man where he was from. The actor politely said, "Iowa, sir." Goldwyn immediately became frosty and said, "Out here, young man, we pronounce it 'Ohio.'"

[rsdsharp]

36. Actually I just gave the punch line.

The set up is that I was working for a large jewelry company, and called the home office to order a ring. I told her I was in Iowa, and she told me they didn't have a store in Idaho. I repeated Iowa, and she said they didn't have a store in Ohio "neither." The third repetition of Iowa caused her to deny the existence of the state I was standing in.

The company was publicly traded, but was run by two brothers, "Mr. Aaron" and "Mr. Harry" who had installed their sons as division heads. "Mr. Danny" was my division head, and when he learned the facts (from me) the tongue lashing he delivered was a thing of beauty.

[rurallib]

59. I used to have a sweatshirt that read "University of Iowa

Idaho City, Ohio" back in my working days when I was frequently traveling east for business.

[rsdsharp]

64. I wish I had that.

Several years ago, I was talking to a client in New York by phone. He asked how far I was from the Iowa capital. "Oh, about a mile, I guess. I can see it through the window." He couldn't believe I could see the capital in Iowa City. "No," I gently said. "Des Moines is the capital of Iowa." "Since when?"he demanded. "1857."

He also seemed to have trouble grasping the fact that my office was on the 21st floor of a 25 story building, rather than in a log cabin or sod hut.

[rurallib]

66. funny

[agingdem]

30. not surprised

you'd be surprised how many idiots don't know who won WWII or the many who are convinced Canada is not another country but part of the United States... sometimes it's pure bigotry but a lot of the time it's sheer stupidity...and sometimes it's both...aka Individual 1....

[The Genealogist]

34. When i travelled to Carlsbad, NM several times as a teenager

They never once asked to see my passport at the NM border. Guess things were just more lax in the 80s and 90s.

[getagrip_already]

40. this is specifically why you can get a plastic "Passport" id card issued by the state dept....

It's to provide a convenient drivers license sized ID that complies with real id requirements. You can't actually use it cross the border - it's just id in the us. a national id of sorts. but it's linked to a passport.

[SoCalNative]

58. Yes, you can use it to cross the Canadian and Mexican borders

but nothing outside of North America.

[fantase56]

42. this is an acutal thing

Years ago here in Santa Fe tourist shops started selling these as a joke. Yes, one of our 50 is missing.....

[DFW]

43. If intelligent life ever visits from space

Their report from Trump's America will be "The stupid is very strong with these people"

At least the half idiot checked with a supervisor. It is not the half idiot's fault that his supervisor was a complete idiot.

How can people who do not even know the names of the fifty states work for the government?? Poor Howard Dean. His fifty state strategy in tatters because American civil servants don't even know what those fifty states are.

What's next, some official demanding to see an invoice for the Louisiana Purchase?

[lastlib]

73. I have an old story about the LA Purchase.

A real estate attorney did a title search on a property in Louisiana for a client, going back to 1803 (year of the LA Purchase). The dumb client demanded that he go back further in time, so the attorney wrote him back. Told him that in 1803 the US government purchased LA from Napoleon, who bought it from the king of Spain. The king was blessed by the Pope, who was the vicar of Jesus Christ, only son and heir-apparent of God. God created Louisana--"and I hope to Hell you're satisfied."

They walk among us.

[DFW]

77. I'm sure that Trump Real Estate would find a way around even that

But that was pretty good nonetheless!

By the way, I did indeed know the date of the Louisiana purchase. A character I made up discussed it with Thomas Jefferson in a novel I once wrote (long story--a few on DU have even read it!).

[barbtries]

45. unbelievable.

the dumbing down of america is no joke.

[Quixote1818]

46. I am from NM and was asked for a passport once at a hotel in Philadelphia. nt

[SpankMe]

48. This is an old problem

I lived in NM as a kid. When we went to Colorado to play soccer at other high schools there, we were often asked by the other kids (non-sarcastically) if we had to present a passport to get into Colorado.

Do a Google image search for New Mexico license plates. Note that they say "New Mexico USA" on them. They put the USA in big letters on there so when we drove to other states, the locals could tell we were visiting from elsewhere in the US and not from Mexico.

A little less obvious is the case of Puerto Rico. Although not a state, it is a US territory and people born there are full-on US citizens. They are US passport holders. But I can't tell you how many stories I hear of Puerto Ricans being challenged on their US citizenship at airports, government offices and other places.

It looks like schools are failing our children.

[LeftInTX]

50. I'm a master gardener

I live in San Antonio with a subtropical climate.
We get a few freezes which stunts tropical plants.

I kept getting calls from a lady that was mad about our winters. She lost a papaya and avocado etc



Finally she calls and says, "I'm moving to New Mexico, so I can grow more tropicals. Give me the citrus list for New Mexico".

I say, "There isn't one. You might have better luck in Brownsville. It snows in New Mexico."

[dalton99a]

51. But the beach resorts in New Mexico are fantastic

[rampartc]

54. does new mexico issue a "real id"

most states are compliant but as a louisiana resident i might need a passport if bobby jindal had remained governor or if john bel edwards had lost to vitter for governor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_ID_Act

[Quemado]

55. My signature line says it all

New Mexico - it's a state, not a country!

[rusty fender]

56. My cousin, from ABQ, worked for one of the U.S. senators from NM, in DC

Once, when she was gassing up her car with NM plates, another customer asked her what the current exchange rate was. Without skipping a beat she replied, “Four quarters to a dollar.”

[Pope George Ringo II]

60. Maybe they should put "USA" right there on the license plates to help?

Oh, wait...

[Pope George Ringo II]

61. Ironically, D.C. residents famously have a similar problem

You see, their driving licenses don't have a state on them. This confuses people outside a relatively small radius. D.C. residents have enormous difficulty buying alcohol, renting hotel rooms, etc.

[Apollyonus]

62. hahahaha

[Hassler]

65. The movie Idiocracy turned out to be a documentary.

[klook]

67. Cute story from a Republican and former Trump administration official appointed by Ryan Zinke,

who resigned his post at the Bureau of Indian Affairs last year under an ethical cloud because of his role in a tribal loan to buy a Wall Street brokerage that later went belly up -- a gambit for which Clarkson and his consulting firm collected a $327,500 paycheck.

More on Gavin Clarkson:

Secret and Unaccountable: The Tribal Council at Lower Brule and its Impact on Human Rights

Trump appointee to Bureau of Indian Affairs resigns after Interior’s IG slams the loan program he oversaw

ProPublica: Your $20 million loan went bust? The Trump team will hire you

Report cites 'disturbing' conduct of former Bureau of Indian Affairs official

Q&A: Secretary of State candidate Gavin Clarkson

Q: Do you believe New Mexico’s campaign finance reporting system should be improved? If so, what changes would you propose?

Gavin Clarkson: Albuquerque’s mayoral race is a perfect example of the failure of our campaign finance system. A publicly funded candidate should not be allowed to leverage private donations. “Dark Money” from George Soros has reportedly flowed to my opponent repeatedly, yet the existing system doesn’t force those funds to be reported.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

68. K&R were the clerks republican supporters? tRump threatned to build a wall around NM

After his speech in Albuquerque, which incited a riot, his supporters became violent with protesters, causing local police to intervene.

[Duppers]

70. Hand picked by tRump?

Bet tRump cannot name all 50 states!

[treestar]

72. the depressing part is the supervisor agreed

How high up do you have to go before finding someone who knows the 50 states?

[Buns_of_Fire]

74. Good thing he DIDN'T show his Choctaw Nation ID...

He'd be sitting in a cage near El Paso, charged as an illegal immigrant.

[Stuart G]

78. There is a world famous attraction,..That is NOT.. world famous...Carlsbad Caverns..New Mexico

An incredible beyond words place to see. This is a national park, so it has been displayed in an extraordinary way..
It is located in southeast New Mexico way off the beaten path. So who would go there? Southeast New Mexico?
Anyway, yes there is an elevator down to the bottom, so you don't have to walk to the bottom, and the formations inside are beyond words. There is one place in the cave where you can look up 250 feet and also look down 250 feet. You cannot see the top or the bottom of the look, but you can see that it goes on forever. (250 feet is the height of a 25 story building) At night fall, there is an auditorium in front of one of the entrances to the cave, and people sit there, and tens of thousands of bats fly out of the cave in order to get their nights food. Yes, tens of thousands. They just fly out. No the bats do not bite the people sitting there watching, but that is in itself an incredible sight. I would strongly recommend everyone going to see this incredible place, with incredible formations inside, a world famous cave..........................................

for some pictures of inside the cave..hit this link:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g143018-d3916574-Reviews-Carlsbad_Caverns_National_Park_Visitor_Center-Carlsbad_Caverns_National_Park_New_.html

.......but.........southeast New Mexico..who would want to got there?

[AJT]

80. Many years ago I was talking to a young woman while on vacation in Florida. She asked me where I

was from, I said "Minnesota" and she asked me what state Minnesota was in.