-------- Original Message -------- Subject: RE: [Politech] John Gilmore on Feinstein not accepting email [sp] Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 11:49:41 -0700 From: Ray Everett-Church <lists@private> To: 'Declan McCullagh' <declan@private> Declan: With all due respect, cry me a river. Her office does absolutely accept electronic communications, just not in the form some might wish to provide. I'm sure her office doesn't accept messages via sky-writing, semaphore, or singing stripper-grams either. But citing a web-based communications system as evidence she doesn't want to communicate? That's just batty. The fact that she doesn't accept the particular conveyance you prefer is no excuse to go off the deep end. The reality, of course, is that she's doing exactly as thousands of other governmental entities, businesses, and other organizations: forcing those who which to correspond electronically to do so in a manner that mitigates risks and enhances the ability to manage the flood. With the advent of automated "Astroturf"-style advocacy organizations that blanket of every Member of Congress with megabytes of emails, offices are often inundated with emails generated by individuals who are not within their state or voting district. While one would hope that a Senator from Georgia would care what a citizen in Oregon thinks, the reality is that congressional offices are pretty lightly staffed as compared with your typical major corporation. Prioritization and focus are required. As her constituent, I'm much happier that her office uses a web-form to manage correspondence than the old methods I experienced when I worked on the Hill many moons ago. If this helps her focus on *my* communications, and those of my fellow constituents, and allows her to blow off the Astroturf and harassing cranks, bully for her. Meanwhile, when I desire to communicate with my elected officials, I send letters, faxes, or pick up the phone. I can almost always get right through to whichever staffer specializes in the issue I'm concerned about. In fact, if you are offering detailed and substantive feedback, I frequently find the relevant staffers eager to have reasoned conversations about particular pieces of legislation. I encourage everyone to use the communications venues that *are* available, rather than cursing the ones that aren't. Of course, there will always be some who find it better to set their hair on fire than curse the darkness, eh? ;) -Ray _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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