I have a shitty job this summer. I canvass for Children International, "one of America's oldest charities working to combat child poverty internationally and here in the U.S.," according to my daily spiel. Basically I ask people on the street that I've never met to hand over their credit card and allow us to bill them 22 dollars a month to help a child in Central America, Asia, The U.S., and Africa go to school/to the doctor/have a better life in general. It's actually a cool program, but most people are not into committing to spending money on someone else monthly. Lame, but expected. I'm not that naive and idealistic.
Anyway, everyday I gear myself up for rejection, and I'm usually fine with getting blown off by the numerous busy businessmen and women who just "don't have time." Sometimes I'll have a halfway decent conversation with someone, and sometimes I'll run into completely crazy paranoid people who kind of just waste my time but are reasonably interesting. Once every couple days I'll get someone cool like Riana, Sydney, or Jakita who wants to sign up and be a generous person. Mostly people aren't into it. Whatever. The point is, I really don't take anyone's hesitation or refusal personally.
Today though, I really did get angry. And I stayed angry for almost the whole day, which probably killed my attitude and is the reason why I got zero sign ups and a stern talking to from my boss. I stopped one woman, who looked disinterested in what I had to say but seemed to be putting in her time. As I was going through my speech, I got to the part where I explain the problem we're trying to solve, which is child poverty and its consequences. When kids don't have any money, they don't see doctors. When they don't see doctors or have access to medicine, the common cold, or the flu, or even diarrhea can become deadly. The number of children dying from preventable diseases starts adding up. The stat I go by is 30,000 children everyday, dying of something stupid like a cold.
When I mentioned that number, the woman stopped me.
"Why do you have to say that? Why do you say that? 30,000 children dying everyday?!"
I was kind of floored. Why do I say that? So I can explain why the fuck I even have this job, and why I'm talking to you today. I said more or less that, opting out of the expletives.
"I don't understand why you have to say that," she said angrily. "That's just wrong!"
Yeah. Yeah I think it's wrong too. Who the fuck doesn't have resources to cure the flu? That's ridiculous, and it's wrong, and it's disgusting, and it's a PROBLEM.
But that's not what she was saying. She was implying that it was wrong of me to tell her that, that it was mean or cruel of me to let her know exactly what's up in the developing world while she fucking lives her life with full time access to doctors and a CVS.
It was so American that it just killed me. No one here wants to know all the bad shit that happens to people in the rest of the world while they're on their way to work, or getting a pedicure, or going to lunch. And when someone hears a statistic that makes them feel guilty or depressed, they get angry and defensive. As if I had no right telling her that conditions were terrible for little children all over the world, that they were dying every day from completely preventable diseases. As if it offended her to hear such a great number of dead kids per day, as if I were telling her this statistic for the sole reason of making her feel bad. Well guess fucking what, you should feel bad. We should all feel bad.
It made me furious. I'm not mad when someone doesn't want to sign up. But when a person blatantly refuses to hear reality that's a little too harsh for them--well, that's the reason I'm not surprised so many Americans are uninformed on basically everything that doesn't involve McDonalds and Hollywood.
Fuck this country. Really. Fuck it.
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