Robo-calls - Politicans and parties don't care what you think

The robo-call season has started again for the upcoming election. It appears that many candidates think that it will be beneficial to their cause to have a machine autodial everyone in sight and make the attempt to play a prerecorded message. I believe they're actually demonstrating that they don't care about anyone and would be very bad leaders.

The primary

While my wife was in hospice living through her final hours, I was home trying to rest from my last shift at her side. When the telephone rang, I was expecting a call from a family member telling me that she had passed away. The phone would ring and it was one of those &^%* robo-calls. I'd calm back down and get back with what I was doing and wait for the real call from Tidewell Hospice.

When I had a moment, I would call everyone I could think of to get these calls stopped. I called calling political parties, the headquarters of the candidates and even the telephone company.

No one had the power to make these calls stop. I became frustrated and increasingly angry that they would intrude at such a difficult time and there was no way to make them stop.

I started making a list of who called me and voted for the opposing candidate. Do the politicians really think this practice is helping their cause?

Upcoming election

The calls have started again. Outsiders from all over the country appear to be interested in how I'm going to vote and don't care whether I want their opinion or guidance.

Calls come in morning, noon and night. Caller ID means that I don't take their calls and immediately delete them from voicemail. I'm still angry that they intruded during the time my wife was in hospice two months ago.

I've called the political party headquarters and tried to get these calls stopped. They, of course, tell me that the law allows politicians to ignore the "do not call list" and call anyone, anywhere at any time.

Believe it or not, the republican party here in Sarasota hung up on me when I tried to get the calls stopped. When I call the politician's headquarters, their volunteers won't even take a message concerning this issue.

One thing, though, these calls have had an influence on me. Anyone who calls me immediately gets moved to the do-not-vote-for-this-turkey list