Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[B <beeline AT mindspring.com>]

I disagree (respectfully and gently but whole-heartedly) with Michael's 
position that issue advocacy is ineffective. For myself, I do indeed 
call/write/e-mail my representatives to let them know how I feel about 
particular issues that I'm interested in and on which they're preparing to 
legislate.

I have some personal knowledge of and experience with politics and 
political critters -- the standard understanding is: perhaps as many as 25 
people agree with every single person who cares enough about a particular 
issue to actually write and mail a letter. A slightly smaller number is 
represented by a citizen who's moved to telephone their representative. I 
don't think they have quite figured out the e-mail ratio -- a few still 
ignore this form of communication altogether -- but I know that masses of 
e-mails did play a significant part in the banking "know your customer" 
brouhaha a few years ago. (Of course, the response to 9-11 put the clip on 
that particular issue.) Petitions "work" with these folks in direct 
proportion to the effort expanded to get them out and the number of 
verifiable signatures netted -- I'm afraid that online petitions aren't 
highly respected.

U.S. citizens would all do well to hang onto this fact of life in a 
democracy: Regardless of the amount of money given to any particular party 
or politico, that party or politico is going to lose if the other 
party/politico gets more votes on election day. (Of course, this opens a 
rather large and ominous door to a could-be-heated conversation about the 
2000 elections, which illustrate -- I think -- what happens when we have 
*mature* divisive issues (urban vs. rural: gun control, abortion, taxes, 
gay unions, etc.) with no strong personalities running. But I'm not yet 
ready to talk about that particular election dispassionately. I may never be.)

As far as considering appropriate topics for this list... I tend to think 
that old, cold, mature points of argument (such as abortion) would receive 
short shrift here since most folks have already determined their own stance 
(thus, "mature") and realize that arguing about it does nothing more than 
breed contempt, disrespect, and outright descent among members of the 
community. If we're going to argue, I think, we'd all rather argue issues 
that are ongoing: online privacy, spam control, Microsoft... or that are 
personal (but not moral) choices: best local bars and restaurants, beer 
fridge colors, the importance of being appropriately shod....

Michael Czeiszperger wrote:

> On Wednesday 23 January 2002 01:27 am, you wrote:
>
> > What if you have no real opinion but hate getting email asking you to
> > waste your time signing petitions that nobody will ever read?
> >
> > http://www.aclu.org/congress/l071101a.html
>
> That's a good question. When I get solicitations for a good cause over the 
> phone, my answer is easy: the phone isn't an appropriate medium for 
> communicating this type of information because its impossible to verify the 
> accuracy of the source. In any event I don't wish to encourage more contacts, 
> since there are so many good causes, our phoneswould be ringing off the hook.
>
> The problem I have with advocacy is I don't think its effective. With most 
> hot button issues the people who are interested are already plugged into an 
> information network, and those who are not interested are not, so it doesn't 
> do any good telling them about it. For example, every time a bill comes up 
> that affects regulations for equines, the information is passed along through 
> the huge number of formal and informal mailing lists on that subject. I could 
> forward such messages to this group, but I doubt even those of you who like 
> horses would appreciate being told about it, and even fewer still would take 
> the time to write a letter to congress.
>
> In this particular case, although the subject is orders of magnitude more 
> important than equine transportation laws, I'm already an ACLU member and on 
> their mailing list. And even though the subject is a weighty matter, there 
> are so many other matters of similar importance, and I doubt many on the list 
> want to get into a discussion of abortion, for example.


--
              "B" at home
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   http://beeline.home.mindspring.com/
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 "The Italian government is considering
 installing a clock in the Leaning Tower
         of Pisa. The reason?
 What good is it to have the inclination
     if you don't have the time?"
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