the no-send list

This is that post I was talking about...

Easily number two on the Top 10 list of reasons people unsubscribe to the famed WJD is the confession that "I'm Catholic," or "I'm Methodist," or "I'm Christian." Also in the top 10: "@#$%!&#%!%@#$" (seriously, people yell and scream obscenities), "I don't want my mailman in the no-man's land of Kentucky to think I'm Jewish," "I care about the environment and I want you to save paper and postage by not sending this to me ever again," "I didn't pay for this [free] subscription and I want to know whose joke it was to send this paper to me" (findings based on the results of an informal study of an unspecified number of callers conducted by the WJD editorial assistant). Luckily I don't have the job of managing the circulation list so I don't get to hear the best of them. But if I'm good I do get to hear some, because an inconsistency in the phone system sends several of these delightful callers to my desk each day and some of them even leave me messages though my voice mail box message expressly tells them not to.

The woman I just talked to was polite, so she has a leg up on most of our callers. She said pleasantly, almost laughing, "I'm calling to cancel because [suppressed giggle]... I'm actually Catholic. So..." I said "OK" and transferred her to circulation before she could say "I don't want my mailman to think..."

My blood started boiling even before I really thought about the call. No, there is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to cancel a newspaper that is made with the religion and/or ethnicity that's not yours in mind. Maybe it was just her quick and cheery excuse. Why should it matter that she's Catholic? Is it against Catholic doctrine to touch, or, God forbid, open a magazine that has the world "Jewish" written on the cover? It wouldn't kill these people to be a little more accepting and a little less judgmental. It's not very encouraging to work somewhere where the volume of calls to cancel the subscription outnumber the constructive or article request or subscription request calls by at least 75 to 1 (findings based on the results of another informal study of an unspecified number of callers conducted by the WJD editorial assistant).