masspirg - your thoughts?

[sniffa]

i suppose they do good things, but good Lord!! Let me waLk a few bLocks in peace. :mad:

[meegbear]

1. Harvard Square, Cambridgeside Gallaria ...

They're everywhere!

[Warpy]

3. Right, and they'd lean on my doorbell

after I'd worked a 12 hour night shift and they would NOT go away until I answered the door.

My solution? A business card over my doorbell: "DAY SLEEPER WITH A GUN"

Overall, they do great work, but they are as annoying as Moonies, Hare Krishna, and all the other organized street beggars.

Catch a clue, folks! Set up a table or a kiosk! People will contribute if you stop hassling them!

[fryguy]

2. agreed

I've taken to crossing streets, avenues and boulevards whenever I see a clip-board wielding person ahead of me. But even this tactic is becoming ineffective, as they now seem to deploy to every corner of an intersection making it nearly impossible to avoid them.

New tactic, pretend to be on cell phone.....

[skids]

4. It's an organizational logistics issue.

Both PIRG and Clean Water Action are primarily money driven organizations, in that their canvassers do it for work. I'm sure most also believe earnestly in the cause, but for some reason it tends to pollute the experience... amateur petitioners and canvassers for one-shot causes are a bit easier to deal with because they are relatively inexperienced, whereas a "professional" canvasser has motive and means to be a tad more manipulative and persistant.

I try to blow off any negative feelings they leave me with in being pushy by reminding myself it's all for a good cause.

[welshTerrier2]

5. 1972: John Kerry, masspirg and me

i moved to Massachusetts in 1972 just in time to cast my vote for George McGovern ... what a great feeling to now live in the only state to vote for him ... after the election, there was talk of secession ...

i was feeling pretty good about my move from NY until i opened up my auto insurance bill ... it turns out, at least at that time, that males under 25 got charged much higher rates than everyone else ... in spite of my perfect driving record, i was the wrong age and gender as far as the state insurance commissioner was concerned ...

so i called up masspirg to see if i could convince them to make an issue of this blatantly discriminatory policy ... "hello, this is john kerry, head of masspirg" ...

whoa ... "is this john kerry the Vietnam Vets Against the War guy?" ... "yup, that's me ..." ...

"wow, that's great ... i heard that speech you gave in the Congress ... that was great man !!!" ... "thanks ..."

"listen, i want to see if i can get masspirg to help me with a problem i'm having with the state insurance commissioner ... i've already tried the AG's office and they told me to get lost ... i believe the state's policy on rate setting is blatantly discriminatory ... i'm being classified in a risk pool with all males under 25 ... i think that's discriminatory because it is not based on merit" ...

"hmmmm, i'm afraid i disagree ... those groups are established based on statistics ... unfortunately, the group you're in has a much higher incidence of car accidents ..."

"but that's why it's discriminatory ... why should i be lumped in with any group? ... i'm not debating the statistics; i just disagree with putting anyone in a statistical group ... that's what discrimination is all about ... projecting the attributes of a group onto an individual ... for example, i could show you that black people don't live as long as white people; would you think it's OK to charge black people higher life insurance rates?"

"well, i really don't think that's the same thing ... anyway, i'm afraid masspirg wouldn't be interested in pursuing this ..."

so, that was my one and only experience with masspirg ... and john kerry yet ... not only wouldn't he help me, but i later found out that he didn't write that great speech he gave to the Congress about the war in Vietnam ... of course, i still think it was a great speech and i'm glad he spoke out against the war ... but his argument on insurance rates, statistics, and discrimination still has never made any sense to me ...