Dear U.S. Census Bureau,
In the weeks before my family received the Census form, we got a couple of different letters from you trumpeting the ultimate arrival of the form, which probably could have been tucked into the first letter to save the taxpayers some postage, but I digress. This little “coming soon” teaser was apparently done to ultimately heighten the pleasure of the arrival of the actual form. As much as we appreciated the bureaucratic foreplay, it was all downhill from there.
Not long after we were notified at least two more times to be on the lookout for the Census form, and the actual form did indeed arrive. My wife, fully aware that the government might be stupid enough to not be able to figure out how many city buses we need unless we check off a few boxes on a form, filled it out and mailed it back.
A couple of days later, you sent us yet another form to fill out. Figuring we’d already sent in the original form, the follow-up form was discarded in an eco-friendly manner (I burned it in the fire pit while reading An Inconvenient Truth). A few days after that, you sent us a letter reminding us to read the other letters that you sent to remind us to fill out the Census form, which we’d of course already done.
Within a few weeks, after you’d spent enough money on postage and paper to buy Michelle Obama a new pair of Lanvin sneakers, we received yet another Census form from you that if I’m not mistaken ended up being used to clean out the rabbit cage.
Then, the letters stopped coming. We were relieved by the assumption that you’d finally processed the form we mailed back several weeks earlier, albeit somewhat concerned that something bad might have happened to the person in charge of your Redundancy Department Department.
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
It's not over yet. A census worker will more than likely come to your house and interview you for another questionaire. Don't be nasty when the enumerators come to your house. The redundency is not thier fault. The government has to reinvent the wheel every ten years for the census.
ReplyDeleteI got the 2 letters telling me the form was on it's way, to be sure to fill it out and send it back. I got the census, filled it out and sent it back. I received a second census form, which I discarded since I had already sent one back.
ReplyDeleteSunday as my family was sitting down to eat we noticed a truck, unfamiliar to our area, my husband walked to the door to see who was "stalking" our house. It was a census taker. Beings as though I am the one that takes care of the bills and paperwork my husband had no idea I had already filled it out. He came back in the house asking our neighbors last name, which I did not provide because all truthfulness it is not my position to disclose information about others. It then dawned on me as he was standing at the truck with this gentleman, he was giving our information....again. So I went out and told him absolutely not. He was dumbfounded so I explained we had already filled out the form and mailed it back.
Then the census info. collector says well there was a mix up with the roads in this area and your census form said Road rather than Street. First off I know it said Street because I read it, second off I am positive there is no other road with the same name as ours in this state much less the county. So the guy, a little distressed, says well if you don't give it to me now someone will just come behind me to get it. And I care why exactly? I absolutely refuse to give any more information regarding my family to anyone else. If the government is so irresponsible that they have misplaced my information than why in the world would I trust some temp worker with questionable motives and background with that information?
The government can't even take simple information without a fiasco and these dipsticks are running the country. The census is a damn joke any how. There are plenty of ways to get a fairly accurate calculation of how many people are in an area. It is simply another way to waste money and we all know how much the government loves to do that....trillions in debt and growing every day.
After receiving 4 mailings & returning the initial form they insistently want to pry more. So far they have showed up at my house twice wanting more info. The first time I said they,ve gotten all the information required; the second time I just closed the door on them. Complying with the law is one thing, being harassed to try to support politician agendas is totally without merit.
ReplyDeleteName, race, birth date and telephone number is as invasive as the census gets. If politics and other things are being questioned than there is something else going on.
ReplyDeleteI feel left out. Never got even one letter, never got a census form and so far, no knocking on the door. I did call the phone # listed on the internet to call if you did not receive a form only to be told to put in the code that was on the envelope that census form came in. If I did not know the code I should call back after April 12th. Never did call back as I figured out that with the "death panels" in the new health care bill and me and my spouse being over 75, the census bureau wasn't planning to count us anyway.
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