I just received the most offensive phone solicitation from the NRA on this of all days! Even as the FBI was attempting to secure the site of today's mass shooting in Orlando, and the victims and families touched by yesterday's horrific armed rampage in Texas mourn their dead and struggle with a world that will never be the same for them, the NRA's first instinct was to aggressively promote their anti-gun-control agenda. That's cold; really cold, and put me in mind of their Columbine strategy.
The caller said they wanted a response to a single "survey" question. Curious, I told her to go ahead and she played the recorded pitch which went something like this: The UN is trying to eliminate worldwide gun-rights with the specific intention of harming the U.S. There was a lot of hyperbole and invocation against Nancy Pelosi and Congress and I don't remember what all else. Then a male NRA member cut in live and posed the survey question to me which was something like, " Do you think that foreign dictators should be allowed to take away your guns, etc., etc.?"
I told him how inappropriate I found his phone call to be; what an oddly warped effort at damage-control. He thanked me for my time and hung-up.
When I got past my indignation and thought about it, it was funny that, in my case, they had so completely missed their "target." That reminded me of a letter my husband recently received from the Republican Party. It must have been generated by the same misguided engine that identified our household for the NRA. I saved it because it was absolutely priceless:
"Dear Mr. Prent,"
it read,
" Strengthening our Party for the 2010 elections is going to take a massive grassroots effort all across America...Enclosed is your official 2009 Congressional District Census registered Code #...in your name as a representative of your area...Because of your high level of political involvement and commitment to the Republican Party, your personal input on the questions presented in your Census Document is critical to our Party's future."
It goes on in that manner to solicit a donation from this presumably staunch Republican, and is signed by Michael Steele. Naturally, the enclosed "Census Document" is full of leading questions about trusting Obama and the Democrats and all of the favorite Republican soapbox standards...a regular right-wing stem-winder. The only problem is that my husband is neither Republican, nor a right wing sympathizer. In fact, my husband is not even a citizen! He's one of those horrible people known as "immigrants;" and even worse, he's from that dangerously progressive neighbor to the north, CANADA!
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