Canvassers
 

The other day I went on a bike ride with a buddy (pedal, not motorized) to the near-east side of my city. There's a neat neighborhood down there called Woodruff Place that was an affluent suburb in the late 1800's. It only consists of three streets, each with a grass median, filled with sculptures and fountains. It truly does take you back in time. That's beside the point, though.

Anyway, we roll down and stop at one of the fountains to grab a drink of water and just chit chat. After about 5 minutes of sitting around, we noticed a kid that looked like he just graduated college this week. He's walking door to door to the big Victorian homes with a clipboard in his hand. He sees us looking at him, and starts to yell at us from across the street. We're sitting next to a fountain, and the rush of water makes it impossible to understand what he's saying.

He proceeds to come over and talk to us, and as he's walking over, I try and figure out what he's collecting signatures for. He comes over and starts to make small talk with us. About 30 seconds into it, he cleverly (actually, poorly) sees our bikes (both single speed messenger bikes) and asks us if we like to ride our bikes in the forest. I kind of chuckle and mention that they're really for road use only. As it turns out, he's collecting signatures/money for some fake sounding lobbying group that wants to save the forests in Indiana. I humor him, and let him give his spiel, of course which culiminates in him asking me for the monetary donation. After about 3 minutes of him telling me about trees, the forests, and how important it is to save them, I ask him a simple question....

"Zack, have you ever planted a tree?" (He gave me his name as he walked up, and of course, he had red hair. All kids named Zack have red or blond hair)

At that point, he looks at me like lobsters are crawling out of my ears. "Uh....well actually no, but it's something I've always wanted to do."

I proceed to tell him that I've hand-planted over 5000 native-to-Indiana trees on my parents property. His jaw drops.

I then ask him if he thinks it's ironic that he's walking around with a clipboard of papers (conveniently made from trees). He just kind of laughs and says "You know, I didn't even think of that."

Talk about a self-righteous activity. Instead of being proactive, going out and doing something about the trees (such as planting some), he's spending his time, walking around collecting signatures and collecting money that goes to a who-knows-what organization. Such a classic, lazy, self-righteous mindset. And the sad part is, he probably thinks he's genuinely doing a great thing to help a cause.

Ok, time to go for another ride....

You should have waterfountained him.

You can't plant trees w/o money to buy them.

I'm not saying I like door to door, but just sayin'

http://www.arborday.org/shopping/memberships/memberships.cfm?membership=trees


$10.

He probably spent that much on his lunch.

As a side note...the 5K trees that I planted were free...Indiana has a re-forestation program that grants the trees, as well as a property tax break if you plant them.

That's a good program.

Foresty merit badge required us to plant a certain number of trees. There were many many perfectly spaced pine forests around where I lived in upstate NY because of the Boy Scouts.

And the scouts did it for reforestation and reduction of erosion, real issues, not some "ride though the forest" or BS "global warming" issue.

THANK YOU!! That's EXACTLY what I was getting at. This kid didn't get the real issues...he just wanted to self-gratify.

I planted a lot of trees through scouts and its fun to drive back through those areas almost 20 years later and see that what was once were little saplings are now growing trees.

I am all for conservation but keep in mind, trees are a renewable resource. If they are not harvested and the growth managed in a sustainable manor, they are going to die and fall to the ground and most likely be wasted.

Having spent 35 years in the paper industry and watched everything from clearcut to selective harvesting, trees/forests need to be managed, not just left to die where they stand unless you are speaking of old growth, like redwoods.

Like so many radical environmentalists, they think they are working toward a cause but actually they don't have a clue. They want everything but are not willing to give anything.

Every day in the Washington Post there are ads in the "activist" section. I always assumed that was a calling you went into. But, I guess they need people to do this kind of legwork. Don't be mad at the kid, he at least *has* a job in this economy.