Photolog
|
|
“It’s a fact.”
2007 April 02
I’ve had my e-mail address with Yahoo! for over ten years now: jhames at you can figure out the rest. My e-mail address has been the recipient of many a message in Tagalog since jhames, apparently, seems to be a fairly common Filipino name. Lucky for me I have friends who speak Tagalog. My e-mail address has also been mistaken by many a person who assumed that their coworker, friend or family member chose an e-mail address using their first initial j, last name hames. This particular mistake has yielded a variety of e-mails to appear in my Inbox over the years: naughty e-mails, Christian Science postings, rants about court appearances, and papers from students in either high school or college. I used to politely respond to the sender and explain that I was not the intended recipient of the message, but now I only reserve such Samaritan efforts for e-mails that clearly require an immediate response due to emergencies. I figure that lack of planning of their part does not constitute an emergency on my part.
I received e-mail from two young women attending the same Political Science class for a teacher with the last name Hames. The topic was the voting gap in California and what measures could be taken to increase actual votes. Both women agreed, separately, that the only people voting were rich and white. They also agreed that the majority of California is democrat, male and Latino. In order to increase the voter populations of these Latino men, the women suggested our government should offer incentives for voter registration such as free car registration or cable television. Oh, and the government should provide sandwich buffets when voting on a lunch break. And really, who doesn’t enjoy a good sandwich buffet whilst voting? Spicy brown mustard for me, thanks.
It’s a little late for me to reply to both women and say “I’m not really your teacher! Ha ha, April Fool’s!” I’m sure they’ll realize the error of their ways soon enough when they arrive to class and Teacher Hames asks them why they haven’t sent their papers yet.
Were I them, however, I would consider revising their papers and including information about working a full-time job and still not having enough money to live outside a homeless shelter. Incentive for workers to form unions and demand a living wage of their employers may be a better option than dispensing free cable television to drive voter registration. But hey, that’s just me.