If I was getting unsolicited messages of the type I would guess Jim B is sending out, I’d probably toss them without opening them, as I do most junk mail. If it happened regularly, I may open one or two out of curiosity, but if I got follow up phone calls, I’d consider bringing the mail and phone records to the police and asking them to get involved.
Granted, that’s probably overboard and if it was just the mail, I’d toss it, it’s that they’re now calling me. What’s next? Are they going to show up at my house or work? Even if it doesn’t get to the legal level of harassment, I’m in a small enough town that if the sender was nearby, the cops would very likely pay them a visit and kindly ask them to knock it off.
In any case @Jim_B, just ask the post office or call the postmaster. All we can do is guess, they’re the only ones who have a realistic chance of getting you the correct answer.
And, please don’t call or visit the recipients of your unsolicited mailings. That would rightfully creep them out. Even better, don’t send people unsolicited mailings.
My gf and I have received unsolicited mailings from local Jehovah Witnesses. They are letters written with excellent penmanship. We each get our own letters, each one being unique and well thought out, if somewhat glurgy. Just the thing to brighten an atheist’s day!
We read them aloud to each other before tossing them.
I would be remiss not to add that US mail is protected by the First Amendment (even if ‘unsolicited’ ). That is why I use the postal service sometimes. Unlike message boards, if someone has a bee in their bonnet about something, they just have to live with it.
And BTW, I sometimes even get positive replies to my letters (which always have my return address IAE). Most of the time though, I get no response whatsoever. So I don’t even know how they really are received.
I just got one of those a few weeks ago. Normally I toss anything like that, but the penmanship on the envelope was so perfect I wanted to read the rest of it. Two pages (single spaced) with perfect penmanship. It was obviously a ‘you’re not religious enough’ type letter, but some of the phrasing seemed odd, until I noticed it was by a JW (the email address was jw[some numbers]@ gmail .com.
Oddly, they seem to be doing this because they can’t go door to door right now, but in 16 years at my house I’ve never had a JW come to the door and LDS only two or three times. Though I do see groups of LDS at my local ice cream place, but I think there’s a church nearby.
On a side note, I’ve noticed some LDS wearing khakis instead of black pants, did they relax their dress code? Also, the last time I saw a group of them, there was a few girls mixed into the group. I don’t know anywhere near enough about how they operate, but it was the first time I’d seen that.
We’ve never had one stop. We are the last house of three on a private road, boldly signed “PRIVATE ROAD NO TRESPASSING”. Our neighbor Charlie, in the first house, is an atheist like we are (his wife is catholic, I think). He has told a few JW to get the hell off his property, threatening to call the cops.
I received one a few weeks ago. The envelope was addressed by hand. My name and the closing were written by hand. The rest of the letter looked like it was hand-written. But, closer examination revealed it to be printed by computer.
I almost wrote back asking how I could believe anything in the letter after this deception.
Not sure that that follows. It doesn’t mean that they have to read them, or even open them. It doesn’t mean that if they have asked you to stop, that continuing to do so wouldn’t be considered a form of harassment.
I’d assume that they get tossed along with the rest of the unsolicited mail that one gets.
@Jim_B how do you pick the people that you send your newsletter to? Are these famous people in society, scientists, journalists, politicians? Really curious.
No one in the post office has time to read yours or anyones mail, even if they had an idea of what was in it. If the FBI wanted to read it for some odd reason, you’d never know.
Mass mailers do studies all the time where they send out a bunch of pieces of mail to know addresses and measure how many get there and how long it takes. I bet some data on this is online - my direct knowledge of results is decades old. Sending something to yourself won’t prove anything.
Weird things happen. A guy I know who was doing a tutorial for me sent me a box of his books to be distributed. He is from the Netherlands. The damaged box arrived with only half the books and some childrens toys and books filling the rest of the space. Shit happens. The books were technical, not the slightest bit political btw.
I received one of those Jehovah’s Witnesses letters a few months ago. It was 100 percent handwritten (i.e., not a fake-handwriting font). I’d concur with kayaker’s description—it was friendly and a bit glurgy.
I’ll take that over having them show up at my door any day.
I too am quite curious. I’d also like to read an example or two of the responses that have been sent, properly redacted to preserve anonymity of course.
I was slightly curious that anyone still had good handwriting these days. Or do they have people who do have good handwriting write the letters as their form of evangelical work.
I’ve gotten 3 of these JW letters since covid began. In fact I just got one yesterday. The first two were without a doubt hand written (beautifully), this last one was the first typed one I got.
I don’t think I got my first one until late 2020. Maybe they’d been practicing their handwriting the first half of the year??
@Jim_B, you’re sending mail to people who don’t want it and haven’t asked for it, and your motivation is, apparently, that getting these “theories” by mail means those you target “just have to live with” them? Um, yikes?
I don’t know where you got the idea that anything you send through the mail is protected by the First Amendment. There are limits. Sending anything by USPS that causes, attempts to cause, or could reasonably cause emotional distress to the recipient, for instance, violates federal stalking law and is not protected by the First Amendment.
You say you use the USPS “sometimes.” What do you do the rest of the time? Hand deliver them?
The fact you’re aware enough of the issues with sending unsolicited letters that you’re hoping to hide behind the First Amendment so the recipients have no recourse makes your behavior seem all the more troubling.
). That is why I use the postal service sometimes. Unlike message boards, if someone has a bee in their bonnet about something, they just have to live with it.