[net.politics] Phone Numbers for House Switch Board & President's Office

amra@ihuxj.UUCP (Steven L. Aldrich) (07/26/84)

         For anyone who's interested here are a couple useful phone
        numbers. They are for the House Switch Board and
        The Office of the President. I have called these numbers
        before to express my views and thought others might like to
        have them also. It is a quick effective way of letting those
        in Washington, D.C. know what you think.

         To contact The President phone: (202) 456-7639 
             This is the Executive Office of the President.
               ( Phone between 9am - 5pm EDT)

         To contact Congress/Senate Members phone: (202) 224-3121
           Ask for the Office of the representative you wish to
            contact.

        I hope this has been of use to some of you. Just thought
        there might be sufficent interest to warrant posting the info.

                            Best Regards,
                           Steve Aldrich
                          ihnp4!ihuxj!amra

           P.S. Remember, Call Early...Call Often! Let your views 
                   be heard!!

werner@ut-ngp.UUCP (Werner Uhrig) (07/26/84)

hmmm,
	I'm torn in my reaction to this encouragement to call
	government officials ' OFTEN' or even 'AT ALL'.

	Wouldn't it be a lot more effective to write rather than
	call?  There'd be a document which could be photocopied,
	handed around, rather than a phone-memo, which certainly
	would not reflect the "IMPORTANCE" nor "URGENCY" of
	my OWN phrasing in a letter.  In a written statement,
	you can use all the tricks of convincing you know,
	from plain logic, to rhetoric and elegant style.

	Or do you really think that a phone-memo could convince
	or even communicate as well and with as much impact as
	you can yourself, with a carefully phrased paragraph?

	And, is it really reasonable to expect the government to
	have someone take your phone-calls, or even to have
	the "high official" be accessable to 'priority-interupts'
	by any and all?  At what cost to the tax-payer ?

	So, expect a flunky on the phone, who mutilates any message
	you are trying to send, when he takes down a few notes.

	Of course, if your name was Mr.Big.Money.Contributor or
	Ms.Big.in.the.Media, you might expect to get through or
	at least, get your call returned by Mr.BigShot.in.the Govmt,
	but for the rest of us .......????

Admitted, I never tried, so I am willing to learn from you all.
And writing gets me 'junk-mail' where Mr/s. Governement.Person
reports on his/her deeds which fits the image of me supporting.
I have the suspicion, that my Congressman keeps a profile of me
according to what causes I write about and support, and then has
his computer mail me only those letters, which fit my profile.
So as to only tell me about things I would support and keep me in
the dark about my representatives 'mis-deeds' and 'mis-votes'.
Can anyone confirm this?

	Werner	(calling my phone gets you a recording MOST of the time)

cwc@mhuxd.UUCP (Chip Christ) (07/28/84)

Werner has a good point about putting it in writing to avoid
mutilation, but I doubt that any significant number of congressional
offices are a) sophisicated enough to know how to profile individual
constituents, or b) have staffs with enough smarts to REALLY understand
the power available with modern technology (thank God!).  Otherwise, why
would politicians on the national scene be caught blatantly appealing
to any and every special interest group with the cameras rolling?
They act as though people in California don't see the same news as
those of us on the east coast.
					Chip