Thursday, 16 March 2000
.....
Just stuck the Census form in the mailbox, joining the proud 61 percent who are expected to respond without badgering. I had the short version that just asks for name, age and race, so I guess underemployed, free-lance writers who drive 26-year-old domestic cars will be undercounted. There goes my grant.
This year's form allowed me to claim my Native American heritage by checking multiple race blocks, so I did (I'm either 1/16 or 1/32 Cherokee; I can never remember). Nice not to be just a white boy.
As a journalist, of course, I'm in love with the Census. Census data are among the most useful and trustworthy tools for planning public policy, as well as for holding the policymakers to account.
Too bad that the Census, like most public institutions (gummint and bidness alike) is the recipient of increasing, misplaced distrust. There's no evidence that the Census Bureau has ever betrayed its privacy promises, and the oft-maligned undercount is less than 2 percent. But people -- including many who don't have language or legal problems to consider -- are reluctant to fill it out (which is a legal obligation, btw).
Hey, work against the Man all you want, but this is one of the Establishment's unalloyed good works. Fill it out.
This is Standing up, being counted <http://monkeyfist.com/articles/347>