jdmann@labrea.stanford.edu (09/23/89)
/* Written 10:30am 9/21/89 by David Yarrow(jdmann) in */
/* ------------- GRIDLOCK IN THE HOUSE -------------- */
Source: Syr New Times, Wednesday, Sept 21 in News & Blues
Don't write your congressperson, advises Rep. Frank Horton, R-NY. Call
instead.
Horton's advice stems from an inundation of constituent mail that has the
Office of the Postmaster of the House running weeks behind sorting and
delivering letters, mailgrams and packages. House Postmaster Robert V. Rota
notes the unprecedented volume of mail began arriving three weeks into the
Bush administration and hasn't stopped.
When House members elected Rota as Postmaster in 1972, mail volume was
14.5 million pieces. It increased annually to 156.6 million pieces last
year. This year, based on Rota's projections, House members will recieve
391.5 million pieces of mail. House staff members and Rota attribute the
increase to mailing binges by special interest groups.
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COMMENTARY: Environmental & peace groups should take note of this flood
in DC and revise their lobbying strategies. Keep them letters coming, but a
new method of constituent access should be developed. Obviously, e-mail is
more efficient than postal mail.
Next we'll hear of a flood of phone calls, at which point officials will
tell us to sit back and let politicians run government - "Trust us, we're
professionals." Can democracy work in mass society with mass media? Will
central control systems overload and break down, giving strength to local
and regional? Or does electronic telecommunications hold an answer?
Personally, I barely keep up with my own mail.
-+*+- David Yarrow, the turtle, for SOLSTICE magazine
***** SOLSTICE: Perspectives on Health and Environment is published
bimonthly at 200 E. Main St Suite H, Charlottesville, VA 22901 804-979-4427
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