Anne wrote:
No one got replies in snail mail days, [from the White House, in response to
messages from constituents]

I beg to differ.  Both times I have written to the President, I have gotten
real, paper, responses.  Generic, mass-produced responses, but still, real
responses.  The first time was a postcard from Richard M. Nixon, that said
"Thank you for supporting our war effort in Viet Nam."  Ha!  This was in
response to a plea to the president to intervene in a case where a black
soldier who died in Viet Nam, serving his country, was not allowed to be
buried in the cemetery near his mother's home in Florida, because it was an
all-white cemetery.  The President did *not* intervene, even though there
was a huge nation-wide outcry, and the soldier ended up being buried at
Arlington National Cemetery instead.  The second time was a nice letter from
Bill Clinton thanking me for sending in comments about health concerns (in
response to a breastfeeding issue someone posted to LactNet, about white
house folks gathering information about issues of concern to women, I
responded via e-mail).  Again, obviously a stock response, but at least it
was somewhat related!



Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Texas A&M University