Tell Them What To Do!

"Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives." --Alexander Hamilton

Like many millions of other Americans, I have had the pull to communicate with my Representatives in Washington and tell them what to do. I hadn't been an uninterested bystander before this year. I thought of myself as pretty savvy and informed. And I trusted that my representatives would indeed represent me.  I trusted that they were smart people who knew what to do.  But I had rarely written to them before this year.

I still think they are smart people.  Most of them!  And I'm definitely trusting of my own Members of Congress.  Here in California, I am so very lucky to have representatives on the Hill whose views align with mine.  Still, I feel the pull to communicate with them, to express my concerns, and to tell them what to do.

I've outlined here on my blog many ways in which to contact your Members of Congress.  My communications with my representatives have been mostly in written form.  I communicate better in writing.  Even if I compose just a few words, it is where I am comfortable.

One of my first acts of resistance, about a week after the January 21 Women's March, I attended  a a postcard writing party organized by people involved in the Women's March. They had postcards like these printed:

It was a good crowd, and I chatted with my neighbors at the bar, sipped wine, and wrote.  It felt good joining with many other concerned citizens in the first push for communication with our representatives.

I even got a second on the news!  Watch quick at 1:15 on the video in the link below. I'm on the left in a black and white polka dot dress. Link: Local residents write postcards to politicians

Here are photos from the event.

Since then, I've been writing postcards on my own. I bought a box of animal postcards cheap.  I write a few postcards a week, and sometimes they are simply to say "Thank you" to my MoCs and their staff.

I was quite gratified last week when I got a written response from Congressman Carbajal! It felt good.  He is listening!

Of course, I also wrote several postcards to SCROTUS for the Ides of Trump.  Organizers were hoping for 1,000,000 postcards to flood into the Whitewash House.  There was never any press about it afterwards, but our own Santa Barbara Independent had an article that indicated that organizers estimated that indeed about 1,000,000 postcards were mailed to SCROTUS. I would love to hear from the USPS about the official numbers.

Postcards are my favorite, but they are slow.  For more immediate communications, I have been using  Resistbot to send faxes. It is a great option, especially for us phone-phobes and night-owls. Sometimes I compose a fax when I'm in laying in bed...I just text in my message and the Resistbot does the rest. 

If you haven't started communicating with your Members of Congress, you should start now.  Call, write, or fax. One issue at a time.  They are listening. And the resistance is working.  Now, go! Govern!