Fun in the Sun

For the last few weeks, downtown Denver has been buzzing with college kids proselytizing on behalf of “the environment”. On two occasions, I’ve had a bit of fun with them and, I hope, contributed in a tiny way to the development of at least some rudimentary critical thinking skills.

Last Thursday I was hurrying to lunch with a friend when one of them stopped me (the first time this had happened to me). He said a reasonable approximation of, “Hi, I’m Dustin with Environment Colorado”.

I replied, “Are you for bulldozing the suburbs?”

He got a deer-in-the-headlights stare.

I asked him “If you don’t know what you’re for or against, how are you going to convince me of anything?” and headed happily off. I didn’t hear him try to hail me with any sort of retort.

Yesterday afternoon, a pair of the boys (for some reason they don’t have any girls working for them) approached me. The blond boy asked, “Do you have a moment for Environment Colorado?”

I asked, “Are you for banning automobiles?”

He proudly said, “Yes, I am.”

I asked, “How do you plan to get that accomplished?”

The dark-haired boy then interrupted that today’s campaign was about electric utilities. They wanted me to sign a petition for a new law to require electric utilities to buy at least 10% of their electricity from wind or solar energy producers.

“What’s stopping them from doing that now?” I asked.

The reply: “Well, this would make it easier for them.”

I asked, “Who would build all of these alternative generators?”

“Companies like GE can build them.”

I asked, “So you’re asking me to sign a petition to make it easier for GE to make money? Isn’t it rather socialist to require people to buy a particular product? How would you like it if a law were proposed that would require people to buy a pack of cigarettes every day so the state could collect higher taxes?”

They started to look a bit queasy and nervous, so I bid them good-day and went, smiling, on my way.