Confess. Do you write letters to your Congressperson?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

It’s strange, but usually I only write to my MPs when I’m totally on-board with them. I’ve written to Libby Davies a few times about things that I thought could benefit from her attention – and never been disappointed. (Either “Thanks, right on it!” or “Already on it, thanks!”)

The last time I wrote to my MP, though, was not quite like that.

In the last election, I hemmed-and-hawed over my vote – because the Conservatives were doing alarmingly well in the polls, I ended up holding my nose and voting for the Liberal candidate, because I thought he had a better chance than the NDP guy (who I’m lukewarm about, anyway) and I was mainly concerned with keeping the Conservatives out.

The Liberal candidate won – and then immediately changed his colours and declared that he was now a Conservative and was accepting a cabinet position.

Oh, yeah – I wrote a letter. A two-page plaint outlining why he had received my vote, politely outlining exactly what species of execrable wretch he had revealed himself to be, and offering several suggestions of varying probability that he might make things right.

Of course, I received a form-letter in reply. (And I am given to understand that I should consider myself privileged to have received that much in the way of acknowledgement.)

:mad:

Oh, and one time I forwarded the text of an apostrophic pit thread I wrote here, together with some contextual explanation that it shouldn’t be regarded as threatening, in spite of its colourful language (regarding a fecking hated social-program-slashing BC Liberal MLA who had the bad judgment to publicly criticize one of the best city councillers we’ve ever had for dedicating decades of his life to working against poverty) to both of the principals involved.

I was surprised, given how over-the-top I’d been, to get a polite “We appreciate your concerns” note back from the cretin’s office, and was chuffed to get a cautious response back from Mr. Green indicating that my rant was amusing and being forwarded around quite a bit. Heh heh.

22

When I lived in Ireland, a Dublin bus driver threw a black guy off a bus (for “eating”) while issuing racist epithets. The only crime he could be charged with was Incitement to Hatred, which was bullshit, since he wasn’t inciting anyone, he was just being a racist bastard. However, the court successfully prosecuted him with this crime, which I felt was a travesty - he should not have been convicted of this particular crime, but there was nothing else they could get him on. I wrote to the Irish Minister for Justice suggesting that a more realistic and specific law should be introduced. Got an excellent reply, too.

23

For some reason I’m on a right wing evangelical e-mailing list. I think it’s the Amercian Family Something or other. Every other week or so they have some urgent cause they want people to email their congresspeople about. I click off their links, use the form and then email the opposite message. For example, instead of telling my congressmen to vote for the Protection of Family Act, I urged them to 1)NOT vote for it and then 2) Stop screwing around with partisan diversions and do some real work.

Every time a send one, the American Family Something or other emails me asking for a small contribution so that they can continue their good works.

I also sent an email to the governer of Oregon praising him for valuing free speach and lack of over reaction by not censuring some OSU students who published a cartoon of Jesus portrayed as a homosexual in their student paper. He sent me back a form email thanking me for the support.

24

FWIW, when I worked for an advocacy organization, we pushed our consitutents to write their elected officials.

Not that we expected the legislators to write back. But we knew that someone on staff reads every letter that comes in, keeps a tally on what constituents are saying, and sometimes, if it’s a particularly great letter, passes it up the chain.

25

My 8th grade English teacher made us write numerous letters to our local congressman, telling him to…I don’t remember exactly, but it was along the lines of “stop the evil oil companies from drilling in the XYZ forest”. She actually gave us three form letters and told us to copy them, sign them, and mail them (we paid postage), all for a grade. We got a response that said “all your concerns are based on misinformation (and detailed the reasons why)”, and chastized her for using students as sock puppets. It was nice to see her get her due.

26

I’ve written to my congress people on a few separate occasions. Once on the GAY MARRIAGE BAD bull, but that’s the only one that sticks out. Barbara Mikulski (or her office, anyway) always responds very quickly; Dutch Ruppersberger’s office isn’t so prompt.

27

My parents live in New York state and my mother has written Hillary Clinton several times and been pleased with the results. She usually writes when she is having a problem that is healthcare or health-insurance related, like not getting an adequate response from the bureaucracy.

My mother has been pleased with the results, she says issues in this area tend to fix themselves fast when she does this. I believe she generally gets a follow-up from one of the Senator’s staffers.

28

Incidentally, why “confess”?

29

I emailed my MP a couple of months back regarding the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. and got a form letter reply 10 days ago, plus a copy of the letter the minister sent her. Not impressed, but it’s better than nothing.

30

If I spent a lot of time carefully composing and sending out a bunch of mildly angry letters then subsequently felt like it didn’t make any sort of difference, I’d just feel a little dirty about it.

31

Why on earth would you feel dirty about writing to your elected representative? Their job is to take their constituents’ concerns to the government.

We made a call to our senator’s office when we were waiting (and waiting, and waiting…) for my fiancee visa to come through. A few days later we had notice that it was pending.

32

Wonderful. Like it hadn’t been “pending” during all that (and waiting, and waiting…)?

33

Excuse me. I must giggle. :wink:

34

I clearly need coffee. I meant that it was to be issued within a week.

35

It’s a good thing you didn’t sue him insted. Then you’d really get Godwinized.

36

Yes. I write my senators, who are Republican and who I disagree with strongly on many things, frequently. I don’t need to write my congressperson, because I mostly agree with her, though she’s a little far out there sometimes. Mainly I write about the things that I really, really hate, like torture, Guantanemo, rendition, giant contracts to Haliburton and the stupid shit they say in public. I also sometimes write to other peoples’ congresspersons about the same thing, depending on what stupid thing or inteligent thing they have said and what committees they are on. I have gotten letters and emails back, mostly form letters but sometimes real replies.

37

I’m getting the whole 'hood up in arms over this. Nobody is happy. We’ll storm the [del]Bastille[/del] err… County Government Building! Ok, not really, but we’re harrassing our clueless district County Commissioner and are showing up at County Commission meetings to get some answers. I think the Tax Assessor expects to be tarred and feathered at any time, based on some of the letters to the editor I’ve seen. The fun thing is, lots and lots of people throughout the county are p.o.ed about this. Should be a fun summer around here.

38

I sincerely hope it goes well for you.

My story was this: My assessment came in and it had gone up quite a lot. Additionally, this was the first year we could obtain information about our assessments/land/homes on-line. So, I checked it out.

Well, there was the problem right there! My home was listed as a three bedroom, two bath home with the incorrect square footage. The home I was living in at the time, was a TWO bedroom, ONE bath home.

So, the first thing I did was call them up.

Conversation went like this:

Me: Yeah, I’m calling about the assessment on my home. You’ve got the stats for my home listed incorrectly?

Clerk: (with roll-eye tone and disbelief in her voice). Hmmmm? Are you sure ?

Me: Uh…yeah…you say I’ve got three bedrooms and two bathrooms, plus you’ve got the total square footage wrong. My home is TWO bedrooms, ONE bathroom and XXXX square feet.

Clerk: Hmmmm…are you sure you’ve only got ONE bathroom?

Me: (getting exasesperated): Look, I’d LOVE to have more than one bathroom and I could certainly use a third bedroom. BUT, I am standing in the home I’ve lived in for nearly ten years now, and unless those two rooms are buried underground, I can ASSURE you they DO NOT EXIST. Would you like to send someone to see?

Clerk: Wow, I can’t believe we’re wrong. Well, based on the information you’ve given me, your assessment comes to XXXXXXXXX dollars.

Me: But, that’s only like $40.00. :dubious: What about all the years you’ve been overcharging me?

Clerk: Well, you can only go back so many years, it has to be in writing, and it takes a long time.

Me: :mad: I can understand the in writing part, really, it makes perfect sense. You’re telling me, however, that the county who basically stole money from me, now gets to keep it, and oh by the way, if I am paid back, it’s interest free? You get to return money interest free, when if we’re late with our property taxes by one day, we’re zapped with interest and late fees? :eek: :mad:

Clerk: Ummm, it’s not exactly like you describe it, but yeah.

Me: Okay, fine thanks. I’ll be writing.

Swampy, I didn’t get my overages restored to me. The county was having cash flow problems. What a friggin’ surprise. Additionally, there was a huge series of articles in the paper about the battles people were fighting with the assessor/treasurer. Most lost.

I hope your county is better than mine was in this regard.