Don't Bother Me?

[LeahMira]

People are insisting that there is a right NOT to be called by a telemarketer.

Here on campus, a group of students are objecting strenuously to a pro-life group's display of aborted babies that was situated in a location where large numbers going from dorms to classes can't help but see it.

Large numbers of people who are otherwise respectful of the religious beliefs of others draw the line at the aggressive proselytizing (we also have a "Preacher Man" who shouts his sermon from the sidewalk as students pass from building to building).

Wondering here... just how much we really do have a right to refuse and how much we have to accept as part of others' freedom of speech? Or are these things (above) even related?

[Padraig18]

1. My 'take' on it is simple

They may exercise their 'right' outside my home, but when they randomly dial an unlisted number, they ENTER my home; that they do NOT have a 'right' to do.

[RandomUser]

3. There's a saying....

Your right ends where my nose begins.

[DuctapeFatwa]

6. You have a good point, but what about public phone numbers?

I hadn't really thought about it from the unlisted number viewpoint, but you are absolutely right. You paid for an unlisted number expressly for the purpose of controlling who has access to it.

I have no right to call it without your permission.

However, not everyone has an unlisted number. Many phone numbers are available to the general public.

If my number is in the book, you have a right to call it, whether you know me or not.

You have a right to come knock on my door, whether you know me or not, and you have a right to come up to me in the street and talk to me, even if you have no idea who I am, nor I you.

If I want to control the public's access to me, I have the right to not answer my phone, get an unlisted number, not answer my door, build a locked gate and install an intercom, hire a guard, etc.

I don't have to talk to you, no matter how you initiate contact. I can tell you to fuck off, pretend I speak only an obscure dialect of Inuit, blow a whistle, hang up, anything that does not constitute physical assault or threat of violence.

But until telephone numbers are unlisted by default, as opposed to public, you do have a right to call my public telephone number.

I don't like it, I don't want you to, but it is your right.

And if it is one day outlawed, it should be outlawed across the board, whether you are trying to sell me something, get me to donate, ask my opinion, or whether you are a selected affiliate of the parent company of the bank that issued my MasterCard.

[JNelson6563]

2. the answer to those

right-to-lifers and their nasty pictures of fetuses is to blow up big pictures of the deformed babies born in Iraq resulting from DU we left behind.........with big captions of Your Tax Dollars At Work.

Julie

[XanaDUer]

4. Their rights stop at my front door.

n/t.

[JitterbugPerfume]

5. RandomUser

there is a poem By Auden about that

"your rights end where ny nose begins"

wish I could find it

[Booberdawg]

7. telemarketer's do not have the right to invade my privacy

free speech my ass - it's an invasion on my private line, and at the VERY LEAST I have the right to include myself on a no-call list. In fact I'm doing them a favor, because I'm not even polite with them - I just hang up.

I don't care if someone wants to stand on a corner and proselytize - I can ignore that. But I wonder if those who promote and defend aggressive proselytizing would defend MY free speech if I stood on a corner and sang the praises of casual sex, masturbation, gay rights, witchcraft, or devil worship?

I suspect the same people insisting they have a right to aggressively shove religion up my ass under the guise of "free speech" would instead consider my actions intrusive, an invasion of their privacy, and at the very least a public nuisance. They'd probably call the police and have my happy ass hauled away.

I also think forcing a display of aborted fetuses on people is in pretty poor taste, but I have to guess that is being sanctioned by the college in order for them to do that on campus. I might be inclined to set up a booth nearby with pictures of dead Iraqis and Americans that are getting killed on a daily basis because of the bush crime family. The more blood and guts the better. A pic of every single dead American soldier. See - I have a feeling that the anti-abortion propagandists would be offended by that, and would probably consider me UNPATRIOTIC, as opposed to exercising "free speech"

To answer your question - yes, I DO have the right to refuse how much I have to accept from others in the form of free speech. Your rights end where they begin to intrude on mine.

[Brian Sweat]

8. IMHO, The right to free speech does not include the right to be heard.

In otherword, people should not be prosecuted for what they say, but we don't have to listen.

On the other hand, if the government provides a forum for speech, then everyone should have access to that forum.

I pay for my phone line and I don't think that people have the right to use it as a mean of advertising. If people want to use my phone line for solicitation, then they should pay my phone bill.

As far as the pro-life display. I need more information. If they are putting up signs were everyone else is allowed to put up signs, then there is little that can be done.

As far as the Preach man, we had a similar problem in my home town of Gainesvlle (University of Florida). Brother Jed and Sister Suzy were shouting so loud that they were disrupting classes. I think the university was able to at least get them to tone it down through legal action.