> Do you have an indication that actual US Postal letters > are more effective than contacting congresscritters > electronically? Short Answer: ------------- Yes. Without a doubt. Fer sure. The Bee Labs are worth a stamp. 'Nuff said. Slightly More Humorous Answer: ----------------------------- Well, what do YOU think, given that the current President said, in his second Presidential debate in 2004: "I hear there's rumors on the, uh, internets..." Clearly, politicians are not as hip and kewl as you and I, don't instant message their kids to call them for dinner, and have no idea that their cell phones can pull up web pages. So, communicate with them in a manner that they are comfortable with if you want to influence them. Recall that the annual Budget of the USA itself is several inches thick, printed in toxic chemicals on compressed dead trees and distributed to thousands of people who will never even open it. So, your tax dollars are wasted just to document how your tax dollars are going being wasted. Clearly, they like paper. More Serious And Much Longer Answer: ------------------------------------ I know a few congresscritters. They stop by at Farmageddon for coffee, my wife's locally-famous baked goods, and the maximum donations allowed by law, so I hear more than a little about their technological assets from their rants and whines about "the office" and "the computers". (Not that I help them much, I'm not into computers being used for mere administrivia.) Now that the hardware and procedures are in place to quickly process all mail and keep anthrax (both the disease http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/anthrax_g.htm and the rock band http://anthrax.com , I am told) out of the Capitol, we are back to the "normal" status of best influencing elected officials through the use of paper. Yes, paper. Compressed dead trees painted with toxic petrochemical byproducts, cheerily hand-carried by quaintly dressed civil servants who are civil in the extreme from any address in the country to any other address in the country for one flat price. Better yet, HAND-WRITTEN letters on paper, not even typed. Best of all, letters showing actual style and panache in penmanship, so get a female to do the writing for you in fountain pen. While every elected official LOVES e-mail, and many encourage constituents to use e-mail, they like it because it allows them to run software auto-responders that scan your e-mail for keywords, and e-mail you back a canned "thoughtful" response that you might think was a personal reply. Thus, using e-mail permits them to ignore you and your request while still seeming "responsive". Another problem with e-mail is "astro-turf", the inciting of an organized group to "e-mail your representative" with thousands of amazingly similarly-worded messages, created by some web site somewhere with little more than contact information added by those who participate. Any significant e-mail "count" on a specific issue runs the risk of being dismissed as "astro-turf", the work of a special-interest group rather than individual concerned voting consituents. Paper on the other hand, postcards, letters, faxes, whatever, are impossible to ignore. If it is mail from a constituent, it requires a reply by mail (unless you are foolish enough to include your e-mail address on the paper communication, which means that you will be certain to get a "canned" e-mail response). People have to handle and process paper. It MEANS more. Staff members NOTICE paper mail, and will call the congresscritter's attention to it more readily. Anyone can hit "send", but how many are willing to go find a stamp any more? Answer: people who really, truly care, and expect their elected representatives to not just care, but to deliver. You can't flood an office with e-mail, the bits just go onto a disc drive somewhere. You CAN flood an office with paper. You really oughta wanna. So, if you want to support something near and dear to your heart like the Bee Labs, the better tool is a simple postcard. No "security problem" at all, and the small space forces you to keep your message brief and to the point. But one postcard won't do, you need a buncha folks to send postcards. Like all in the same week. To the same guys. Like the Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Bob Goodlatte of Roanoke, VA and Ranking Minority Member Collin Peterson of MN (hint, hint). And don't forget to also send one to YOUR congressperson, the one that represents YOUR district, no matter where you live. Now, if you still have a fax machine, those are so retro, they would be cool if they were being retro on purpose or in an ironic way. But if the pen is mightier than the sword, and a picture is worth a thousand words, then if follows that the fax machine is truly the ultimate weapon, so fax them into submission! Fax your request along with a picture of you standing in one of your apiaries. -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---