A week ago I got a call from a community organizer. He asked me to become a Town Meeting Member. In many New England towns, decisions are made by community 'Yea' or 'Nea' votes. The town I live in is too big to get all the residents together, so each voting precinct gets an allotment of Town Meeting seats. The community organizer wanted me to fill one of the seats in my district that had become vacant.
Wednesday night it was 8 degrees out. There was deep snow and ice all around. It had been dark for 3 hours already. And there I was, going door-to-door, asking people to sign my Town Meeting Member nomination papers.
Initially I thought it would be a lot like selling fundraisers for kids' sports. We've done that lots of times. But that was always during the daytime. Maybe this would be more like a cross between that and Halloween -- going door to door for a good cause at night. Boy was I wrong!
Between 7:30 and 8:30 pm, I visited 25 or 30 middle class homes close to where I live. I wasn't on the street where I live (I was saving that for later). These people didn't know me. I got to see how average Americans react to a stranger's knock on their door on a typical winter weeknight. It was fascinating.
Only three or four of the houses had nobody home. Looks like Americans stay home during the week. Everybody who was home was surprised to have an unannounced visitor. A bunch were visibly scared. Two complained that it was too late for me to be disturbing them. Hmm, 8pm is too late? And 2 rudely dismissed me. Maybe they thought I was trying to sell them something? In only a few of the houses did I find a man and a woman together. It may have been that one or the other happened to be out, but there weren't many cases of that model family visible.
Nearly all seemed disinterested with local government (expected). Nearly all were registered voters (unexpected). And all but two signed my nomination papers (I think just to get rid of me). Most were guardedly polite. Only one couple seemed genuinely interested in meeting a neighbor (a lonely elderly couple). Few were friendly.
So what were they all doing at 8 o'clock on a Wednesday night? I couldn't always tell, but most seemed to be watching tv. Or maybe they were on their computers. A bunch were on the phone. And a few were either cleaning the house or doing home improvements/repairs. One house had a group of people visiting.
What had I expected? I dunno. I think I was expecting more friendliness. I was expecting more activity at least. Most of these people were sitting on their butts and seemed bothered that their nightly 5 hour tv marathon was being interrupted. What kind of life are they living? Aren't they terribly bored?
I wondered how I'd react in the same situation. I don't think I'd be scared. I might be wary of a scam. I'd be friendlier, for sure. I definitely wouldn't mind being torn away from the tv. Of course, there's a good chance I wouldn't be home at 8 o'clock (too many activities). And if I was home, I'd likely be busy with the kids. I surely wouldn't be rude or complain that 8 o'clock was too late! No, I'd react better than these people did.
America has been lulled to sleep by 'entertainment'. TV, the computer and video games are narcotics. We are hooked on them. We resent when another human wants to make face-to-face contact with us. We need to wake up before it gets worse.
Wake Up America! You're getting too boring!
