Of Sheep and Students

I was stopped on campus today by a very young idealistic spokesman for the environmental cause who approached me like this:

The young man saw me walking toward him, waited for me to make eye contact, then, throwing his 3-ring binder in my direction, he said too quickly “do you have 60 seconds to spare for the environment?” 

I made him repeat himself by asking “what?”

He repeated himself, slowly this time, “do you have 60 seconds to spare for the environment?”  He pointed to the brightly colored slip of paper beneath the plastic cover of his 3-ring binder.  He continued fast talking about the organization he is working for.  He said that Colorado has 360 days of sunshine each year, and that his organization is working to help clean the environment of all the dirty fuel and make it a law that everyone has solar panels on their rooftops. 

It sounded like a good idea to me, but I wanted to know more.  I asked about the jobs that might be lost by switching from dirty fuel to clean power.  A good question, right?  A simple question he should have been prepared to receive? 

The young man gave me a look.  Not a respectful look, not the kind you give to someone you want to get to know.  I’d say the look he gave me was contemptful.  He shrugged his shoulders around his head and waved his arms a bit and did the chin bobby thing that some people do when they think they are sooooo right.  He said “well most of those jobs were gone since ’06 anyway.” 

I replied, “oh really? I never heard of that.”  I expected him to explain, but instead of explaining, he continued the rude know-it-all attitude. 

“Uh, yea,” he said, “you know, the economy?”  He said it as if I had failed to see the bread lines. 

I started to wonder if I was talking to an 18 year old skater dude who spent 12 years in the public school system and now lives in a dorm room on his parents' savings. 

He then stepped away from me, out of the path I had been traveling before we started talking, and said with an arrogant tone “you have a nice day, then.” 

I walked away from him, knowing that I should have said more.  

I should have refused his cue for me to exit the conversation.  I should have milked him for all the information he had.  I should have forced him to explain himself further.  I should have chastised him for treating me so rudely.  I should have explained to him that it's okay to have an agenda but that he will never sell his with that attitude.  

I should have said "Oh, now you don't want to talk to me, now that I have questioned your faith?"  I felt like I was talking to a gung ho missionary who thought it was his duty to convert me unless I was too far gone, and by gone I mean not easily convinced. 

Environmentalism seems like a religion to me.  I do think it's great to recycle, reuse, reinvent, and just plain clean up after ourselves.  I believe in doing our best to leave a clean and safe planet for future generations.  I'm not buying into the doomsday idea of global warming or that humans are responsible for it, and I'm not sure that forcing everyone to convert to solar energy is the best way to go.  I needed some convincing before I was going to join the bandwagon, and that young man didn't want to convince me today.  All he wanted to do was the like, whatever act and send me on my ignorant way.  

As I pondered it further, I should have said "you are in a place of higher learning, so get used to these questions," but was I just being presumptuous by thinking that?  Judging by his attitude toward me, I'm frightened that most of the people he talks with on campus are just blindly going along with his agenda.  Is it fair, is it right to ask, "are my UCCS peers merely sheep?"