Matt and Maria's Adventure

Matt and Maria Birchfield packing for the "BIG TRIP"

Sometimes globalization is a mysterious force that seems to affect other people in unkown ways, raising up some businesses and governments, while punishing others. For Matt and Maria Birchfield, the process is more intense and personal. The "Other" is right at home.

Matt is a Hoosier who has lived around, mostly in the small town of Crawfordsville, IN. He has worked in a large variety of mostly blue collar jobs. He still loves his "Red-Neck" family, and has seen most of America from the cab of a Semi. His father loves his collection of guns. His mom loves those lottery tickets.

Most "blue staters" already have formed a prejudice about him by now, but of course, life defies stereotypes.



Matt loves Maria.

Catch-22 part 2

This photo of Ramon makes him look rather amused, but after trying to get a Social Security card in St. Louis he was anything but. It seems that the local Social Security office couldn't verify his identity with INS, the immigration authority. To verify that Ramon was Ramon, they wanted a state ID or driver's liscence. The State of Missouri wanted proof of residency, like an employer, besides the other documents that he could produce. Since he obviously couldn't be working in the legal sector without a Social Security card....

This process looked hopelessly circular, until he tried the Social Security office in Lafayette, Indiana. Somehow Hoosiers have discovered the Internet! The folks at the Social Security Administration were somehow able to go online and verify the U.S. government's decree that Ramon Alvarez is OK.

We hope those folks in the show me state will be able to see for themselves once someone shows them what HOOSIERS FIGURED OUT FOR THEMSELVES, after Mr. Gore invented the internet.

The upshot is that Ramon will have a valid Social Security card, just like other people who grew up and were educated in these United States, in a few weeks.

Pointless, stateless state

Left to right. Jim, Elsie, Ramon, Charlotte in window reflected.

This is my son-in-law, Ramon. He was trapped is a burocratic catch-22 for most of his life. Born in the state of Jalisco, northern Mexico, with relatives on both sides of the US-Mexico border since the 1920's, he has spent all his life since a toddler in the states. A talented and entertaining person, he can keep up with all sorts of intellectual discussions and debates among the students at Washington University, St. Louis. He can supervise fast food workers and telemarketers. He can deal with wiley truckload brokers and health insurance administrators.

Since Ramon is a native English speaker, he is often called upon to be a bridge between his Spanish-speaking family and the Anglo world. This a common responsibility for the sons and daughters of immigrants, where the learn to deal with the world around them ahead of time.

Ramon went to American public schools and graduated from Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Indiana. That is where he got to know my daughter Charlotte. They love each other and married back in 2006. They live in St. Louis now with their two dogs.



One would think that mariage would help cut the Gordian's knot of the US administrative maze. Not so fast. He is still trying to convince the state of Missouri to grant him a state ID.