Conference turris::womannotes-v2

    I am now in the process of writing my letters...
    
    Gail

    Thanks for the addresses, Tom!  Will point interested parties to
    these.  
    
    Ann

	My pleasure. I would encourage people to fill in the several
	holes, or make corrections, and to add addresses for those 
	outside of New England.

	Also, according to my Almanac, The President can be reached at:

			The President
			The White House
			Washington, DC 20500

	If you know the name of a Senator or Representative, you can 
	generally reach them by writing to:

	The Honorable <name>		The Honorable <name>
	United States Senate		House of Representatives
	Washington, DC 20510		Washington, DC 20515

	The US has the finest politicians money can buy. They are 
	supposed to work for *us*. Let's make 'em earn those big bucks.

						Tom_K

    
    
    You might take pen in hand (or pick up the phone) and ask little
    Jimmy Wright why he won't allow a vote on the pay raise that (without
    a dissenting vote) will DOUBLE congressional salaries on 8-February

    Mr. Speaker has disallowed any new business on the floor until after
    that date.  Gosh, what a coincidence.

    Below are the names of other people who play important roles in
    determining public policy in this country.  Planned Parenthood is
    urging pro-choice folks to help keep abortion safe and legal by
    sharing their views with the people listed below.          
    
    
                                                               
    President George Bush  			Your State Senators    
    Office of the President             	U.S. Senate                   
    1600 Pennsylvania Ave.              	Washington, D.C.  20510           
    Washington, D.C.  20500                                    
                                                               
    Dr. Louis Sullivan                  	Your member of the House
    Secretary                           	House of Representatives                        
    Dept. of Health and Human Services  	Washington, D.C.  20515                        
    200 Independence Ave., S.W.                                
    Washington, D.C.  20201                                    
                                                               
    Mr. Richard Thornburgh                                     
    Attorney General                                           
    Department of Justice                                      
    Constitution Ave. & 10th St., N.W.                         
    Washington, D.C.  20530                     
    
    
    Gail
    
    
                                                
                                                
    
    
    
    
    

    Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is believed to be the "swing"
    vote on the U.S. Supreme Court.  Mail can be directed to her at:
    
    Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
    U.S. Supreme Court
    One First Street
    Washington, D.C.  20543
    
    
    Gail

    Sending mail to the Supreme Court Justices is not a good idea. The
    court judges matters of law, not public opinion.  In fact mail for a
    particular cause may backfire if the justice feels influenced by it and
    compensates for that by leaning the other way in order to create an
    un-biased opinion. 
    
    The recommended way to influence the court is by filing a "friend
    of the court" brief.  Several organizations, including Planned
    Parenthood are putting lawyers to work to prepare such briefs.

	I wanted to respond to 13.367, but the comments I want to make
	have more to do with the sometimes exasperating exercise of
	corresponding with one's elected officials, than with sexism,
	the subject of Topic 13, so I thought this was as good a place
	as any for such a discussion.

	Pat didn't post her letter to Mr Bush, but based upon what
	she's posted in this conference, I suspect it's safe to 
	assume it was a well thought out request for Mr Bush to
	re-consider his position, with a reasoned argument for
	Pat's position. In return, Pat got a canned response from a 
	staffer that (more than likely) did not	address one specific 
	item that Pat might have mentioned, and simply re-hashed 
	Mr Bush's stated views on the subject.

	Pat, I wish you better luck with the Democrat's, but unfortunately,
	I don't think you'll get any. The above problem seems to be common
	to public officials of every stripe. The problem seems a little
	less evident when you write to support a position an official
	takes, but let's face it, how many people ever write a legislator
	to tell them you support their position on an issue?

	Not long ago I sent a letter to an official, this one a Democrat, 
	giving a detailed criticism of a proposal he was in favor of. I
	asked him to reconsider his position in view of the information I 
	was sending. In return, I got a letter that simply summarized
	(and inaccurately, at that!) the issue, stated the official's
	position, and thanked me for supporting this position! At least George
	didn't claim Pat was on his side!

	Now, I suppose our public officials are too busy buying 
	$400 hammers, legislating away our freedoms, and taking 
	fact-finding trips to Europe to read and reply to each letter 
	they receive from a constituent, but for the buck's we're 
	paying in taxes these days, you'd think that our public officials
	could get their staffer's to at least extract an appropriate reply 
	from their word processors.

							Tom_K

    Oh, Tom!  That politician was so behind the times.  Nowadays the
    thing to use is a digitized signature and PostScript.
    
    							Ann B.

    
    re .8
    
    Whaddya expect? I hope to G*d the Prez is doing something besides
    signing replies to crank letters...    

	Perhaps you could do me the courtesy of reading the entire
	reply. The last paragraph makes it clear that I know that
	answering the mail is a job delegated to assistants.

						Tom_K

    
    About six weeks ago, we were invited to call an 800 number in 
    Washington to register our thoughts on reproductive choice.
    
    Does anyone recall this number?  And does anyone know whether we 
    use this number to register our opinions on other topics?
    
    You can send mail to EGYPT::LEACH if you have the answer!
    
    Ann