We are all guilty of it. We see them ahead of us with their fliers or clipboards and panic sets in. We pull out our cell phones or headphones and quicken our pace, envying every person on a bike or skateboard who can just zip right by.
You look at the ground to avoid making eye contact or be sucked in by their smiling faces. Their enthusiastic voices ask you a question like: "Do you have a minute for gay rights?"
If you're too late with the headphones, you know they know you heard them and you feel the burden to answer. We try to be as polite as possible with our "No thanks, I'm good" or "I'm sorry, but I'm late for class." I even still applaud the most creative answer I have heard: "Sorry, I gave my minute to the environment."
I am guilty of this dance known as "dodge the lobbyist" but I was recently able to see it from the other side. One of my clubs held a bone-marrow drive on campus. We set up tables on the mall outside the Memorial Union, prepared our fliers and educated ourselves on the bone-marrow registry.
I was excited to help save lives and grabbed my stack of fliers, ready to draw a million people toward our little table. The first responses from people were typical: "I'm late for class" or "Can I come back later?"
And of course, I responded, "Sure, we'll be here until 3." At first, my hope for success was too high to realize that these people wouldn't return. As the day continued, more and more crowds passed by our little table and we began to ask our own question to the masses.
"Save a life?"
How could anyone say no to saving a life? It isn't possible, unless we are on a campus of entirely heartless people. Still, even when asking this question I thought was impossible to turn down, I received a hand wave and the dreaded response — "No thanks, I'm good."
Now I don't know about you, but I don't think "No thanks, I'm good" is a legitimate answer when someone asks if you would like to save a life.
I understand that people have become desensitized to a lot of things, especially when it comes to helping people out. I am the type of person who always needs to know what the catch is, and I can understand that when I ask "Save a life?" the person might think there is money involved.
But isn't it our obligation as humans to at least ask what is involved? Altogether we had just over 50 people actually ask how they could save a life and what was involved with the procedure.
The rest of the 52,000 people at ASU couldn't have cared less; we were just another group of campus solicitors.
It really saddens me to think that the people here are so "me-centered" that they can't be bothered to help people with leukemia and other diseases that destroy bone marrow.
We even had our own spokeswoman Nicole, who is suffering from leukemia, come out to draw support. "Save my life, join the registry," she said, as she handed out fliers. The only creative answer the whole day was the one that stung the most:
"No thanks, I don't feel like saving any lives today."
I know I can't be too angry; I'm guilty of it too and I doubt that I'll ever actually stop and give that minute to the environment. But think about this the next time you see a solicitor on campus — who knows, maybe your minute will actually save someone's life.
Rachel can be reached by e-mail at: rachel.m.branch@asu.edu.
