Ray Everett-Church replies to John Gilmore: "Cry me a river"


-------- 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@everett.org>
To: 'Declan McCullagh' <declan@well.com>

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
Posted by Declan McCullagh on May 18, 2004