An anonymous correspondent chides me:
You’re WRONG, Claire! You shouldn’t be slyly urging readers to resist the census. Instead, we should be helping the census, just as all the ads and promos say.
I live in a rural area in [state deleted] and I noticed that dedicated census workers had hung forms in big white baggies on the doorknobs of dozens of places I knew to be either abandoned or mere weekend or vacation cabins for people who live in cities.
You don’t think all that effort should go to waste, do you? I sure don’t!
So I helped the census by gathering forms that were getting ignored, rained on, and nibbled by raccoons. Now, thanks to one good citizen’s cooperative efforts, rural [county deleted] has an amazingly large population of Asians and Pacific Islanders, in need of those government handouts the Census Bureau tells us we should want so much.
See what a single cooperative citizen can accomplish?
So get with it, Claire. Urge your readers to give census takers all the help they can. Remember, it’s for the good of your community!
Ummm … no comment.
Just a little while ago I was in a store and an indignant redshirt was at the counter in front of me complaining that some blacks (except he didn’t use the word ‘blacks’) stole all his forms in a parking lot, pulled down his pants and and ran off. All I could do to keep from pointing and laughing!
And it kinda confirms the rumor that little spoiled university student census workers have been total assholes in certain neighborhoods. Namely the poorer ones named after Civil Rights workers.
If I didn’t have a bunch of groceries at the time I would have given him a repeat preformance. You know, For the good of the community!
I really, really hope that email was satire. Either that, or The Census has learned to use Google to seek out dissenters online.
(Yes, I treat The Census as a sentient creature, its starting to remind me of those B-movie monsters)
Or, I could be misreading something in the message. Which has happened before, and I’m typing while half asleep :p
Got this from a friend in Arizona and I think it something I might try.. I like the concept of tying them up and maybe educating those 30 pieces of silver agents.
I’ve always adopted the position that “the best defense is a good offense.”
I have a pad and pen near the door to write down everything they say. I ask them to repeat it several times so that I get it right, and then read it back to them to be sure I have it right. I’ve even told them I’ll have them initial it when they’re done to be sure I have it right.
That’s when I begin to see the “deer in headlights” look.
If they start quoting laws to me, I ask “Are you an attorney licensesd to practice in the state of ____________?”
That usually sets them back a step or two.
If they ask me if I’m an attorney, I remind them “you came to my door to justify your visit and your questions. I’m in my own home and I don’t have to be an attorney in my own home.”
I have a pocket Constitution that I keep near the door, and I hand them the Constitution and ask them to identify the portion that supports their questions.
In 2000, I also told the census taker, “If that man in the White House can refuse to answer questions about which women he’s had sex with, I can refuse to answer questions too.”
The 2010 version is “If that man in the White House can refuse to answer questions and refuse to provide his true birth certificate, school records, passport records, appointment records as a public official, I get the same privilege.”
This should be fun this year.
In response to the census form received in the mail today, returned in the nice postage-paid envelope they sent:
U.S. Census Bureau
4600 Silver Hill Road
Washington, DC 20233
To whom it may concern:
The number of people residing in my home is 6.
This is the only information that I will disclose to the Census Bureau, per Article 1, section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution. My housing status, telephone number, name, sex, age, date of birth, race, or ethnicity have nothing to do with apportioning direct taxes, or determining the number of representatives in the House of Representatives. The Constitution established a federal government of limited, enumerated powers, and it does not give the Census Bureau the authority to request any additional information beyond what is defined in Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of said document. Therefore, I am under no Constitutional obligation to provide such information.
Attached you will find the unconstitutional form I received in my mailbox.
While I disagree with one of the comments made by one the posters here, I do agree they are overstepping their bounds. I was infuriated by the envelope which had big bold letters saying something about response is required by law. A little too big government for me
In Frith.
Devin