A better way to get your message across is to meet face-to-face with the
senators/representatives. It has been my experience that our elected
officials are very eager to talk to constituents, and are genuinely trying
to get information on issues. Ron Wyden, for example, has committed to
conducting numerous "town-hall" type meetings--He was here in Cottage
Grove recently.
Most elected officials are spending a lot of energy trying to understand
the issues; we can help them hear someone other than paid lobbyists.
Seeing a face, and hearing the voice, feeling the handshake of a person
with a passion and thorough understanding of an issue will have more
impact on our leaders than an impersonal letter.
A hand-delivered letter, explaining your position, will have more impact
than a snail-mail or email letter.
Now if that isn't enough, we could form a political action committee,
raise funding for advertising. We could co-sponsor legislation,
circulate petitions, etc. Getting attention takes some effort, but it
can be done. Elected officials have to watch numbers of supporters, or
they're out.
Did Euglug have a presence at the recent hearing in Salem regarding UCITA?
My guess is that most of us are too busy with our own lives to devote much
effort to fixing societal problems. We're spending most of our time
drinking the free beer of others' leadership efforts.
The Gnu/Linux anology is that we shouldn't be complaining about the
system if we aren't the ones participating and contributing toward
its creation, debugging and maintenance.
At 06:58 PM 7/19/2001 -0700, Christopher Allen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>On Wed, 18 Jul 2001, Patrick R. Wade wrote:
>
>> Paper mail is worth a thousand emails;
>I agree with your sentiment, but I'll see you and raise you an
>order. Paper mail is worth ten thousand e-mails.
>
>-Chris
>
