Times are Changing Indeed
by I am doing something I do not usually do, writing about politics. Every four years we vote for the future President of the United States. We all live through the political process of Democrats digging up the dirt on other Democrats and Republicans accusing fellow Republicans. You know the cycle. Then when the final two candidates are center ring, the gloves come off. All chaos breaks loose. The winner is usually the one who tells us what we want to hear or the one who makes the most convincing accusations against their opponent and promises for change. How many times have we heard that same old line?
I still get “updates” in my email on what is going on in the White House and why not support us by sending $50, $100 or more. It’s always about the money. I remember last year having the Obama campaign call me with the following conversation to donate money and support the campaign. I do, I pay taxes. This is the first time in all my voting years that I have been called from a campaign organization being solicited for money. Usually I get stacks of mail but not phone calls.
Then more calls came daily from the Democratic Party. Annoying even though I am/was a democrat, I lean more to the Independent side now. Maybe I should have felt lucky but I only felt perturbed by the time I hung up the phone. One Obama campaign supporter told me he was calling from my city. Oh really, where would that be? I live in BFE, so I hardly think so. “Well,” he continues as if it were a joke, “Have you decided who you are voting for?” I said, “Yes, I have.” Then he says, “Can you tell me who you are voting for then?” My reply was, “Ummmm, no.”
“Why not?” says he.
“Because it’s my vote.” I said greedily.
“Well, then, I’ll just have to keep calling you then.”
“Yea, but that doesn’t mean I will answer.” There is a silence on the line while he attempts a polite yet clever comment.
“I’ll just keep calling until you do.” Is that a campaign threat or a promise? I am thinking about saying I’ll call the cops for harassment or I’ll put you on the do not call list, but then I know that would be fruitless. So clever me says, “If you call me again I know who won’t be getting my vote.”
“You have a nice day Ma’am.” That’s what I thought…
“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.” are the famous words of Thomas Jefferson. Moreover, we resemble those words everyday.
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Post CommentInna Tysoe
On January 22, 2010 at 5:36 am
LOL–I never had that experience with either the Obama or the McCain campaigns (I signed up for updates for both even though I am a Democrat and pretty much knew who I was going to vote for pretty early on because I wanted to know the other side of whatever story was being spun at the moment.) But your experience does sound like what we are (to this day) experiencing with a charity.
About a year.. maybe a year and a half ago, my husband picked up the phone and donated $10 to a charity for hungry children. Good cause, right?
Maybe not so much. They’re still calling us–at least once a week and more often around the holidays–trying to guilt us into giving them more money. And then we get their mail. I have no idea how much this charity spent trying to get more money from us but I am pretty sure it was more than $10. And kids are still going hungry.
Inna
Apalmer
On January 27, 2010 at 11:01 am
Inna, thanks for you comment. The sad part is we give willingly to help others and often times it doesn’t make it to the ones we give it to. In turn that makes other consider not helping. I’ve had it happen to me as well. Now, I mainly focus on helping people closer to home where I can see that I am making a difference.
As for them calling you continuously, you can simply tell them to remove your name and put you on the Do Not Call list. I wouldn’t be broken-hearted doing this considering they are wasting paper and money that could go to feeding the children they are advertising about.