Just a Bit of a Rant

There are many good things about going away for the weekend. There is the change of scenery. There is not having to cook. There are different-from-the-usual activities. There is time to talk, uninterrupted, during the car ride. There is the occasional quilt shop en route! Many good things.

One of the very best things about going away on the weekend before the election is not having to answer the telephone! Already I'm receiving on average two calls per day from people or machines I don't know, urging me to vote for or against a particular candidate. I know that this will intensify over the next few days. Intensify to the point where I'm likely to just take the phone off the hook when I'm home. I already check the Caller ID now and don't answer any calls that are UNAVAILABLE or from a 800 or 888 number. And when I'm downstairs where I don't have a Caller ID phone and I stop sewing to answer a call from a political source, I get peeved.

Who in their right mind would vote for or against a particular candidate because someone they don't know calls on the phone -- likely interrupting something one wants to or should be doing -- and urges that particular voting? Who, I ask you?

I've received so many calls in recent election seasons from our Congresswoman and her staff and her machines that I've told her that if she isn't able to manage a simple request from a constituent to be removed from a calling list, I surely wouldn't trust her to do anything more complicated. Like govern. And so, if I get another call, I'll vote for her opponent. Simple as that.

And -- even worse -- does anyone at all listen to recorded messages that come into the home? Much less take voting counsel from a recording? An automatically dialed machine-recorded instruction? Huh? Don't the politicians realize how utterly annoying and insulting this practice is?

I don't get it.

Click.