The Census Overtaking in Berks County
When turning on the TV, "quirky" commercials appear that summarize the importance of the 2010 Government Census. Most explain how the "10 questions take 10 minutes" will effect the funding for each county or like the one posted below as it describes the importance of mailing the form back:
However, when I looked at the form to fill it out I could not understand the importance. The main questions that are asked: the number of people in your household, age, gender, and race (especially if you are Hispanic). But, what exactly will this form accomplish? As an Albright College student, we were all warned that if we did not submit our form back to the housing department, we could be fined as well as have the Government Census "workers" come on campus and hunt us down.
"As a Resident Assistant, we were instructed to inform the students of our buildings the importance of the census form. The students were told to fill out and submit the form back to an RA in their building within a deadline. If a student had not submitted their form, an RA was instructed to track the student down. Faliure to comply would be a possible fine as well as a visit from the Census bureau. The college wanted to convey the urgency about filling out and submitting the form," says Resident Assistant Matthew Odenwalt.
What has the government come to when they have to pay select individuals to drive across each county to make sure that the American public has submitted their census form? The current economic status of this country has every citizen scared of what the future may hold. Being a college student, we are especially concerned that jobs will be available once graduating.
"I just don't understand why the government is spending so much money to promote the census form when our economy is hurting. I am going to be graduating in December and I am scared that jobs will not be available once leaving Albright. Where is the governments priorities?," says junior Chelsea Morris.
The government is spending a lot of money with the commercials they are exposing as well as the overall promotion of getting the public to try and understand the importance of the census form. However, they are a select group of individuals that the government seems to be worried about. The Hispanic population seem to either not understand the census form or maybe scared of filing out and submitting the form.
I have read in numerous newspapers; including The Reading Eagle. The main points that I have concluded from the numerous articles are: The Hispanic population can either not understand the reasoning for the census form or the fact that they may be scared due to the fact of the possibility of their American status: citizen or illegal?
However, if the "census collectors" are in fact going to go door to door to collect the forms - wouldn't the possible illegals be noticed then? Does the Hispanic population know of the collection services? In addition, how would the collection representatives know of which individuals sent in their form and which did not? There is no address portion on the form so I am not sure how the government can tell where the forms are coming from.
I tried to get in contact with the Berks County Census Representatives; however, they were unable to reach for comment. Seems like these questions will have to go temporarily unanswered, yet the questions posted are good ones to ask yourself when filing out the form that seems to control our destiny. I just do not understand why this one piece of paper - that holds 10 questions - will control the funding supply?
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