Morality lessons in telemarketing calls

The phone rings. It's early, but not so early that I shouldn't be up. It could be an important call, and I'd be really pathetic if I ignored it because I wanted to hit snooze into a second hour. So I stumble out of bed, searching for the phone. I hear the echo of my second phone and seem to know exactly where that one is, even if the location of the nearer one eludes me. I finally find it, right at my feet.

Caller ID isn't much help. Out of Area. It seems like I'm getting a lot of calls these days that are "out of area". If somebody doesn't want their name to appear on the Caller ID, do they move out of the metro area? Do they ask for an area code a little West of the city, in some land of the technologically impaired?

"Good Morning. Oh...this is Todd? Great."

Yeah, wonderful. "Who is this?"

"This is the Minneapolis Paralyzed Veterans"

"Put me on your do not call list".

There's a pause. The guy doesn't speak. I hang up. The guilt settles in.

The Minneapolis Paralyzed Veterans. Have I really become so hardened that I hang up on them? I picture a man who served in Korea or Vietnam. He's a quadriplegic. His office is majorily underfunded, so there's no headset to wear, and no automatic dialers to call people. So it's with great effort that he nudges the phone off the receiver to nose dial every number. And asking to be on the Do Not Call list? That probably means someone has to wheel over to the large tome and drag it across the office. Probably by their teeth.

Maybe video phones are the way to go after all. I can't help but think that if I had a full body shot of a quadriplegic in a wheel chair to look at, it would be quite sobering and I'd be a little more generous with my time and money when I got a telemarketing call.

I feel bad now.

But what am I going to do? They're "out of area". It's not like I can call them back.