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)