Tuesday, January 15, 2008

I just got telemarketed...

It serves me right because...shh, don't tell anyone, but I haven't signed the new number up yet with the Do Not Call list. (No fear of government conspiracies or anything, just laziness.) The woman who did the telemarketing was supposedly calling for a charity, something about policemen rights and benefits. Probably legit and probably a very good cause. However, after seeing some special on, like, 60 Minutes a few years ago about how some of these charities are fakes with the supposed cause receiving little or no money and said fake charities may use criminals in jail as free labor to make the calls, I have not made a donation in this manner. I still feel horrendously guilty, though, and am always looking for a way to extricate myself without out and out lying. I hate lying to them, even though they'd have no way of knowing for sure that's what I'm doing and they may, in fact, be lying to me.
 
Anyway, this woman, clearly following a script, says something like, "We're looking for law-abiding citizens who want to make sure policemen have the same rights as the criminals they take off the streets." Okay, honestly, based on that description, I have no idea what her specific cause was--a new Constitutional amendment, not sure--but she was definitely leading up to the "asking for a small donation" bit. The part that stopped me was the "looking for law-abiding citizens." How absurd. How do you know I'm law-abiding? Would you not take my money if I was a criminal?
 
And, of course, I soooo wanted to interrupt her right then and say, "Ooohhh, sorry, I totally can't donate then. I'm a convicted hash dealer." (To be honest, I don't even know what hash is, but it does lend a nice air of specificity to the statement, doesn't it?) Just because the dead air on the other end of the phone would have been hilarious. But I am a good girl to the core and kept my mouth shut. : )
 
 

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