Where's My Birth Certificate?

There are some political figures who are championing tighter standards for a presidential candidate, which include the presentation of the original birth certificate in the list of qualifications for President.  Well, that really stunned me.  I'm not planning to run for President in 2012, but who knows what opportunities might arise further down the candidate road?  And here I am, without my original birth certificate!

In case you are wondering what happened to it, here is the story:  when I applied for my first passport as I prepared to join my new husband in Germany, my mother handed me the original form.  I was born in an Army hospital near Denver, Colorado, and the obstetrician's signature is on the paper -- a friend and colleague of my father the Army pathologist.  It was a treasured piece of family history.  Thinking the Passport Office would later return the form to me along with my new passport, my mother had me include it with the other information I submitted.  Alas . . . that's the last I saw of that certificate!  I wrote the Office once asking about it but was told there was no way to research their files for it -- too involved and not enough staff available for such.  I did send for a copy from Adams County, CO but it was not a replica of the original, simply a typed version with the same information.

This concerns me a great deal.  What if this requirement of displaying an original birth certificate goes into effect legally?  That will definitely prevent me from running in any future presidential election.  And although my mother held no political ambitions, had such a requirement been in effect during her day, she would have been unable to produce any kind of birth certificate.  The courthouse in Nelson County, VA where her records were filed burned down, and all the records were lost.  She had nothing but her name in a family bible to prove her existence.

I suppose it would be possible in this age to prove that neither my mother nor I ever existed.  Without that original birth certificate we have no way of proving that we were actually born, not to mention born again.  Whoever reads this blog may be forced to decide if I am real, or simply the reader's imagination.  You will have to come to your own conclusions about that.