Sunday, May 31, 2009

Poor girl

I can't believe I forgot this because I laughed SOOOO hard!

Yesterday we get a survey call from Maris College for the "youngest male over 18 in the house). It turned out to be a survery about A) Obama, B) abortion, and C) our government system. Well Chopper is indeed the youngest male over 18 in our household and you all know how wonderfully opinionated he is. Our phone tends to be loud so I could hear some of her questions and these were Chopper's answers. He wasn't rude mind you, just . . . vocal. . . and well I'm not kidding that this is how it went:

Girl: I'm going to name some types of people and I want you to tell me if they should be able to speak out on abortion or not on a scale of 1-5 -- 1 being they absolutely should not and 5 they absolutely should.
Chopper: Well if they're living in this country than the answer is 5 for all of them because we all have freedom of speech.
Girl: Well I need to go through them anyway.
Chopper: Ok fine.
When the girl gets to judge -- Chopper: Is this a sitting judge or a private citizen who is a judge.
Girl: I can't elaborate on the questionnaire sir.
Chopper: Well if it's a private citizen, of course they can, but if they're on the bench, absolutely not.
Girl: I need a number.
Chopper: Well how can I answer the question if I don't know what capacity he's in?
Girl: Well you need to give me a number.
Chopper: Then I guess I"m going to assume since you're saying judge that he's on the bench so that's a no, a 1.

GIrl: Should the Supreme Court change the law about abortion?
Chopper: I can't answer that it's a dumb question.
Girl: What do you mean?
Chopper: The Supreme Court doesn't legislate, they rule on decisions already made. It would be the Congress that legislates.
Girl: SO you're saying that they shouldn't change the law?
Chopper: I'm saying that the question is invalid because the Supreme Court doesn't legislate.
Girl: Sir if you're not going to answer a question just tell me to move on.
Chopper: Then move on because I can't answer invalid questions.

Those are just a few examples of how this survey went. But it made me sad too because she had a whole series of questions where the answer was either "pro-life" or "pro-choice" and it asked you to choose but it was stuff like, which group cares more about family and which group should be allowed to speak out about their views and which group is more violent. Chopper basically answered "both" for all of those (not an option of course) because we do all have the right to speak out and I do believe that everyone cares about their family and there has been violence on both sides. It made me sad that their survey obviously set out to peg people into little holes that said if you believe a certain way than you are bad or good. That is one of the biggest things that bothers me about politics. If someone's views are not mine, they are not a bad person (ok a few exceptions but you can ask Chopper about those) -- but it seems as if lately the labels of "liberal" and "conservative" are both being used by the opposite groups to spread hate. And there are people on both sides who do it. But that poor girl. I wonder how the rest of her calls went?

1 comment:

Mark said...

I just have to say that I enjoyed the parts you shared and wish I could have heard the whole thing. I don't think I would have made it through listening to that without laughing hysterically. I can totally see Chopper doing that, and I am proud to say he is my brother-in-law because of that (other things as well, but this is a great one).