You're walking down the street. You're probably pretty busy. You reach an intersection and wait for the light to change. You are then approached by someone with a clipboard. They want to talk to you about the environment. They only want "a moment of your time." They approach you with a comment such as, "Do you care about the earth?" Suggesting that if you do not stop and talk to them, you do not care about the earth. If you politely decline, they do not leave it at that. They press on, becoming more and more insistent that either you sign the petition, or you are personally responsible for the demise of baby polar bears in the North Pole. Poor little polar bears...The light changes. If you are fortunate enough to get past this bully with a clipboard, you cross the street...and are confronting with yet ANOTHER bully with a clipboard. He or she is wearing a matching t-shirt. You look around...there is a bully with a clipboard at EVERY corner. You are surrounded! You are powerless to evade them. No matter which direction you approach the intersection from...be prepared for the inevitable clipboard in your face, threats of Armageddon if you don't stop to sign it, and precious minutes of your life irretrievably gone.
Don't get me wrong...I love the environment. I recycle. I try to conserve water. I walk or take public transportation whenever possible. I bring reusable bags to grocery store. But forgive me if I don't feel like talking to some peppy, privileged, self-important punk with a useless petition who is aggressive to the point of rude and utilizes guilt and blame to accomplish his or her purposes. How do they know I didn't sign the petition some other time? How do they know what kind of a person I am? Why do they feel entitled to tell me how and when I should contribute to environmental issues? And why is their time more important than my time?
If I want to hear about your cause, I'll stop and ask. Solicit my attention politely, and leave me the hell alone if I don't give it to you. And I don't have concrete data to back this up, but I'm pretty sure those hours spent harrassing passers-by could be far more effectively spent doing something like picking up trash. Or better yet, round up all your fellow petitioners, pack a few suitcases full of matching t-shirts, hop on a boat to the North Pole, and go live with the polar bears. Permanently.
2 comments:
When all is said and done, more will be said than done.
Agreed. As a resident of San Francisco, these individuals are almost as abundant as the surly, shot-out hobo with their aggressive sidewalk solicitations. Polar bear preservation is apparently the pre-disenfranchised, youthly idealistic, recent college grad's heroin.
Post a Comment