It is time to end robocalls

(The following is my column for this week's Newton County News.)

In one of my early jobs in the newspaper business, I served as editor and reporter for the Lockwood Luminary-Golden City Herald. It was a job I enjoyed a great deal, but it only lasted for about a year, coming to an abrupt end when parent company Boone Newspapers decided to pull the plug on the newspaper in October 1979.
After a brief, unsuccessful attempt to land another newspaper job, I decided to return to Missouri Southern and get my teaching degree, but I had to find some way to bring in some extra money in the meantime.
A student loan helped, but I still needed money for gas, food, and other necessities, so I pitched an idea to Emery Styron, who was editor of the Newton County News at that time.
I told Emery I would sell subscriptions to the Newton County News and receive a percentage of each one I sold. He agreed, though he wisely required that the subscribers actually pay before I received my cut.
I did well selling over the telephone and had a steady supply of money for several months, during which time I gradually began doing some reporting and eventually replaced Emery as editor when he moved on to another newspaper in 1981.
That was an innocent time when you could actually call someone on the telephone, try to sell something, and be treated politely. Many of the people were even pleased that I called because I was selling a product they wanted.
Those days are just dim, distant memories.
In the years following, all types of businesses, legitimate and shady, jumped on the telephone sales bandwagon, and were eventually joined by politicians. The problem became so great that Missouri and other states, and eventually, the federal government put no-call lists into place.
Unfortunately, there were exceptions to the list, and the most egregious was political calls. Undeniably, political discourse is important to this country, but in election after election we are buried under a deluge of phone calls, always coming at the most inopportune times (key points in television programs, dinner, naps). And come to think of it, when is it opportune to receive an unwanted phone call?
One candidate for Missouri attorney general, whose name escapes my memory, actually made robocalls trying to convince people to vote for him by claiming he would do away with robocalls.
During October and the first four days of November, including election day, robocalls were coming right and left. I received one from Joe Biden, telling me to watch Barack Obama’s 30-minute infomercial. Unfortunately for Biden and Obama, the call came with only a few minutest left in the infomercial.
I am sure I am not the only one who received daily calls from people representing John McCain telling me every story about Barack Obama negatives ranging from Rev. Jeremiah Wright to William Ayers, to Obama’s stance on guns.
One of the most irritating calls came from Democratic legislator Maria Chappelle-Nadal of St. Louis who called offering her support for Republican attorney general candidate Michael Gibbons.
I don’t want to hurt Ms. Chappelle-Nadal’s feelings, but there was not one person in southwest Missouri who cared what she thought about Michael Gibbons or his opponent, Chris Koster.
And I was right in the middle of a nap.
It is time to end robocalls and establish a no-call list for politicians.