Solicitation calls should be unconstitutional. This is the only case I can think of that capital punishment might be an appropriate response. These annoying calls are an invasion of my privacy. They always come at the most inopportune moments. Of course, I could let the answering machine screen all calls, but I want the freedom to pick up the phone when I choose, knowing that someone with whom I wish to talk is on the other end. I generally tell them that I don't acccept solicitation calls and to please remove my number, but because they get numbers from newly generated mailing lists and don't usually keep a database of forbidden numbers, this request is usually futile.

Some may argue that they don't mind receiving these calls, just as they don't mind receiving junk mail, real or e-mail. That is their right. However, I do mind and that does not stop solicitors from calling. But with junk mail, I can open it at my leisure or just throw it away. It does not call me to pay immediate attention. The telephone is a different matter. It is a personal instrument - another person with whom I must interact in real time demands my attention, just as I demand theirs when I call. All of us are conditioned to respond to its ring just as certainly as Pavlov's dogs. Therefore, it should be considered a bastion of privacy. Those who call me should know that they have my permission to contact me and that they have business that is in my interest.

We are conditioned to receiving advertising soliciting us to buy things by radio, television and mail. But this free broadcast entertainment is paid for by advertising - a trade off many of us willingly make if we wish to hear and watch, but we are not forced by a ringing bell to pay these attention. Commercial breaks are opportune times to get up and pee or get a snack. And there's always an off switch. The phone has an off switch, too, but if I turn it off it may be at my peril. The telephone is not a broadcast medium.

Obviously, phone solicitation works or else businesses would have stopped the practice long ago. Perhaps we have become used to it as another minor irritation of the many in life. Should it be abolished or should there be some regulatory process that could screen out those not wanting to receive solicitation calls? I think businesses should first have permission to call rather than following a list of those not wishing to receive calls. There is an organization that will assist you in taking your name, address and number off of mailing lists, but this is an arduous process. So I propose that the phone companies should create lists of those willing to receive solicitation calls and all others could be screened out at the source. Of course the phone companies will complain that the cost will be prohibitive, but they always say that. Call your government and phone company representatives and let them know how you feel on this issue.

Happy phoning.