Daily Rant
by Rowland Scherman

To: The People of the United States of America

I care about what has happened, and what is happening, to our country. I am not alone. I know that most of you, too, are concerned with the complex situation that confronts us, and how our leaders are dealing with the myriad of problems that often seem insurmountable. Like any American, it is my right to contact my elected representative and express these concerns. I do this when I feel that the country is heading in the wrong direction, or when I feel that certain problems are not being faced honestly or effectively, or when I am appalled that the rule of law (that we all originally agreed to abide by) has been flouted by some who feel they are above such laws, such as Karl Rove who has been summoned to testify before Congress, and has yet to show up.

I write to my congressman at least once a week. And I urge all of you to do the same; and that is what leads me to the gist of this message. What I want to address is what happens when one does contact his representative. If I am lucky, I get the following message on my computer, usually about 2.3 seconds after I press the SEND button. Here’s the message:

Just a short note to thank you for your e-mail.

As your Congressman, I want you to know that I appreciate hearing from you. I hope that you will contact me regularly on issues that are of concern to you.

You can also get in touch with me through my Washington, D.C., Cape & Islands and South Shore offices. Contact information for each of my offices can be found on my website at http://www.house.gov/delahunt. This website also provides regular updates on our work in Washington and in the district. If you’ve not done so already, I encourage you to sign up to receive my periodic electronic newsletter, “What’s Coming Up.” Please click here to register for our mailing list.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you again.

Sincerely,
Bill


That’s fine. So, I am assured that my message has reached its destination.

But am I assured that my congressman has read it? No. Instead, I have to assume that the computer in my congressman’s office has received something, and is programed to respond with a form letter.

But wait! What I had to say was more important to me than that. I really wanted Bill Delahunt to actually read what I said. I am not sure that that ever happens. What I guess happens is that someone in the congressman’s office counts the letters and puts them in a box that says “for xxx” or “against xxx”. So the language that I used, the syntax, the testimony, the arguments that pointed to what I considered the rightness of my point of view, are never seen. This must be true, because some of the best rhetoric I ever conceived is answered with the same form letter, seen above.

Obviously, a member of Congress receives so many emails it would be impossible to answer them all. That is only fair, and is a given. My regret is that when I write about something that is really important, when the outcome of my representative’s vote is crucial, to me, my message becomes merely a number in a pile of those “for” and those “against.” My email letter may be in a box of 30 or 60 or 200 others. And tomorrow it is yesterday’s mail.

So I believe the solution to be this: when you are concerned about the general drift of the country, and you want action, and you feel you should write a message to your representative or senator to get that action, do so. Just keep it simple, short, and direct. But here is the most important part: get everyone you know to do the same! Contact relatives, friends, acquaintances, friends of friends, and have them ALL write a letter. And get them to get all their friends to send a letter as well. Make the computers in your congressman’s office melt down with the weight of correspondence! It’s the American way, and it will work, unless we, in our masses, remain silent.

This is a numbers game, people. The congressman’s aide will announce, “Boss, there are 750,000 (pick a big number) letters for this. We have to respond.” And this, I believe, is the way of democracy now that marching in the streets with pitchforks and flaming torches is presumed to be passe.

That might work also, but only if the numbers were there.

RS

© 2009 – 2015, Glynn Wilson. All rights reserved.