Sept. 26, 2003 - 08:49 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Telerant

As a child I learned rapidly and well. As soon as I could walk from door to door trying to sell seeds or Cloverine Salve, the little brass plate under the doorbell or on the door jamb near where a bell button would be that said, "NO SOLICITORS" meant exactly what it said. No sales folk, no charity solicitors or religious solicitors were welcome and would get some rather impolite comments from the householder at the very least if the NO SOLICITORS plate was not obeyed. Didn't take me long.

Even in the days just after I came down from the trees a householder's peace and privacy was a matter of insistence that people should be left alone if they wished.

When I got a bit older I remember pinching a salesman's shoe in our door when he wouldn't remove it so I could close it. I grew older yet and became a householder, I can remember noticing a person going door to door, when they got to my place the door was not answered.

I can't understand the spam on the net either, are there so many suckers in the country that every one trying to sell Viagara, Prozac and other medications, bust enhancers or male enlargers are making any money ? Funny, the exact same page will be displayed time after time by one or another pusher.

I do not appreciate unwanted calls. My home is my castle and don't you paddle in my moat, or yingle-yangle my Graham Bell for sure.

We have had a NO CALL LIST here in Denver for quite some time, it works. Calls from political organizations, religious organizations and charitable organizations are not kept from calling. So when one of those call my home I say something to the effect, "I know that you are legal calling here but as far as I am concerned you too should be prevented from invading my home and infringing on my privacy.

There seems to be a furious uproar about a national NO CALL LIST. To me it is obvious what is instigating it, money. First a judge puts it on hold because the plea put forward that it should be the FCC instead of FTC that should govern the NO CALL LIST. Then a judge in Denver decides that the NO CALL LIST is unconstitutional and violates free speech.

Now just a damn minute . . . . . . . I will fight for free speech and feel that anyone should be able to use that right on the sidewalk where the law allows. If my home is invaded by a telemarketer on my phone -- he has walked through my door just as much as if he forced his way into my house. Don't I have any rights ? Do I have to be a captive auditor ? Do they have a right to fill my answering machine with blathering blither when I am away from the phone ?

For the most part, if I can't see something, feel it, weigh it in my hand or read the fine print at my leisure I am unfriendly as heck.

There seems to be a huge number of people who are avidly for a NO CALL LIST, so I think maybe I am one of many.

So, is the industry going to prevail ? What will be their next ploy ?

Dog gone, I'm angry as one can tell from my Telerant . . . . . . . . . .

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