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  • From: B <beeline AT mindspring.com>
  • To: InterNetWorkers <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: something for you politicos...
  • Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 13:50:55 -0500


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
.........................................
http://beeline.home.mindspring.com/
.........................................
"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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