FYI: The internet has made some communications easier.
I still send political letters by regular mail. And of course
Feinstein's response also was by regular mail.
John
--- In OliveStarlightOrchestra_at_y..., "Mikal" <mikalm_at_i...> wrote:
> Not surprising at all. Just as the Internet has made it much
easier for
> ordinary citizens to write their Congressentities, so it's made it
far less
> work for said Congresscritters' staffers to fire back form-letter
responses
> that don't address specific issues...
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "tschibasch" <tschibasch_at_y...>
> To: <OliveStarlightOrchestra_at_y...>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 12:14 PM
> Subject: [OliveStarlightOrchestra] Citizens and their governments
>
>
> > Every time I see the news I get more depressed that something
> > terrible is going to happen soon. It seems the United States is at
> > war with a group of totalitarian governments and terrorist groups
> > scattered around the globe.
> >
> > This helpless feeling I have is surely misplaced, isn't it? I
mean,
> > our government is more representative than most. (And that ain't
> > saying too much, when you look at a country like Iraq!)
> >
> > What can I do, as a citizen of these United States?
> >
> > Besides voting in every election since becoming of age, for many
> > years I have written letters to congresspeople with my concerns.
> > These letters were often unanswered, or I got a note back saying
> > something like "thanks for the letter". Heck, I could have said
> > anything in the letter, and I would have gotten such an answer!
Did
> > the letter get read? I stopped writing for a while.
> >
> > Last month I sent a letter to Dianne Feinstein. Amazingly, this
was
> > answered in a way that indicated that someone, somewhere, read it.
> > Please feel free to look at my letter and Feinstein's response.
> >
> >
> > Here is my letter, with whatever heading and formatting removed:
> >
> > Dear Senator Feinstein,
> >
> > First of all, I want to acknowledge that your party has
> > always had my support, as I have been aggressively voting as a
> > Democrat for many years. I would like to bring a matter to your
> > attention, which apparently has been going on unnoticed:
> >
> > As media attention focuses on President Bush's "War On Terrorism"
> > which targets the Middle East, we now ignore past military
> > involvements during our "War On Drugs" which targeted South
America.
> > What ever happened to the "War On Drugs"? Did we win?
> >
> > For the citizens of Colombia, the results of this war have been
> > tragic: Over the last several years the United States has supplied
> > military aid to different repressive governments of Colombia,
while
> > paramilitary death squads have been killing opposition figures and
> > union activists, almost with impunity. The new president, Alvaro
> > Uribe Velez, is no friend of democracy. He declared a state of
> > emergency after taking office in August 2002.This crackdown will
> > permit further attacks on civil liberties.
> >
> > The Colombian government should not be receiving any military aid
> > from the United States, a country that has long espoused human
> > rights. When President Bush recently told the Cuban government to
> > stop its repression, he should have sent the same message to the
> > Colombian government.
> >
> > I would appreciate it if you, being an important senator from an
> > important state in the union, would bring attention to this
problem,
> > which is occurring in our hemisphere.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > John Turley
> >
> >
> >
> > Here is the response:
> >
> > Dear Mr. Turley,
> > Thank you for your letter about my vote for the Resolution
> > authorizing the use of force against Iraq.
> >
> > This was not an easy decision and it came after a great deal
> > of thought, consideration, and study. While I continue to have
> > serious concerns about a pre-emptive, unilateral attack against
Iraq,
> > I voted for the Resolution because I believe it will encourage the
> > United Nations to pass a new, robust Security Council Resolution
to
> > compel disarmament of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and avoid
> > war. I have been reassured by statements made by the President in
his
> > address to the United Nations on September 12th which conveyed a
> > commitment to work with the U.N. towards that goal.
> >
> > There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein and his arsenal of
> > chemical and biological weapons pose a real and persuasive threat
to
> > the safety and security of the United States, the Persian Gulf,
and
> > the Middle East. We must push for a resolution now or risk paying
a
> > high price later.
> >
> > Attached please find a copy of the floor statement I mande on
> > the subject which fully express my views. I understand the
> > seriousness of this vote and I thank you for sharing your views
with
> > me.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> > OliveStarlightOrchestra-unsubscribe_at_y...
> >
> >
> >
> > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
> >
> >
Received on 2002-10-31 01:07:28