My new job includes serving a population I had not served before - The Amish. While every population we serve in libraries has its stories of injustice, today I'm working on one related to Old Order Amish.Old Order Amish people do not have their photos taken - this relates to the issue of "graven images" in the Bible. I have a patron who needs to travel to Canada for his job. He can get through the border with a passport - which requires 2 photos - or with his birth certificate and photo ID. I have talked to our local passport offices, to our federal Passport offices, and to the Department of Homeland Security. None of them could help. Now I'm calling the borders in the US and Canada at his specific points of entry and departure to see how we can ensure he can get into and out of Canada.
The person at Homeland Security agreed that this religious issue needs to be resolved - After all, she said, we wouldn't "make a Jewish person to eat a porkchop" to get into our country.
