Do Not Call List

I would like the chance to address Gloria Almeida's very hostile tirade against phone calls by telemarketers and surveyors in the Letter to the Editor in the Oct. 29 issue. First off, the "Do Not Call List" does not apply to surveyors. It never has and never will. Why? Because the number one employer for surveys is the United States government. How do I know? I am one of the people doing the calling.

I have called for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to make sure people living in "a tiny apartment with two sons" have help available to pay the rent, pay the utilities and have heat in the winter. I have called for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during outbreaks of various diseases not only to find out who got sick, but also to figure out why some people did not and what they did differently. I have also called for the Department for Veterans Affairs and had my heart ripped out by stories of elderly people having to choose between eating and paying for medication.

We are not trying to intentionally anger the people we call, but we do have a job to do. We are college students who don't have help paying for our education, mothers making ends meet, elderly men and women for whom social security doesn't cut it and disabled people who want to be independent. And if you think showing us "just how free my speech can be" impresses us, you're wrong. We just wonder about how you were raised or what kind of person you really are. It won't get you off the call list either. It only gets you marked as hostile and someone better suited for dealing with hostile people will call you back.

If you don't want to do the survey, fine. Say, "no thank you" and hang up. Depending on the importance of the survey after X number of "no" responses, the computer will stop dialing you. But the next time you can't get help from HUD, get sick or need any other community assistance, don't complain, you decided not to participate in the process that provides the funds.