Giving Telemarketers a Very Clear Response

Re “Judge Bars ‘Do Not Call’ Telemarketing List,” Sept. 25: Cries from the telemarketing “industry” that the “do not call” list would devastate their businesses are welcome. Those of us who signed up for the list hope it will devastate them right out of business. Telephone lines are not an open marketplace for dubious salespeople to assault citizens during the dinner hour; they are paid for by customers to use for communication with those they choose to communicate with.

At one time “tin men” sold aluminum siding door to door using chicanery. It is time to simply make telemarketing go the way of the tin men.

Shaun Mason

Arcadia

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If 50-plus-million people indicate they do not want telemarketers to call, why is it that a judge ruled to let the abusers of the system continue to run rampant? Does it really matter that some telemarketers will no longer be able to glean money from interrupting other people’s lives? I think not. The people have spoken: Let the majority live without being solicited to buy any number of useless products.

Dale V. Franz

Woodland Hills

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Re “Another Hang-Up for ‘Do Not Call,’ ” Sept. 26: The framing of the proposed “do not call” telephone registry in terms of the right to free speech of telemarketers is outrageous and wrong. I read the Constitution, and nowhere does it say that telemarketers have a right to use my personal property to tell me something that I don’t want to hear.

I have no objections to telemarketers shouting their script in the open air on public property. But just because they have the technical ability to communicate does not mean that telemarketers have the absolute right to infringe on my right to say no.

Richard Raffalow

Valley Glen

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So U.S. District Judge Lee West put the brakes on the implementation of the national “do not call” list. Could the media please publish West’s home phone number so the 50 million Americans he has decided to inconvenience can return the favor?

Jim Goebel

San Clemente

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Instead of “do not call,” how about “do not answer”? When my phone rings I let my answering machine take the message. Then I screen the calls. If it interests me, I’ll respond. This way, the telemarketer doesn’t lose his or her job and I don’t lose my patience.

Edward H. Roman

Victorville