Really Going Rogue

At our September meeting, it was suggested that the Club participate in calling residents of the county urging them to call our Rightwing Republican Congressman Pete Olson to urge him to support health insurance reform.

Instead, we went rogue.

We decided that calling Pete Olson was a waste of  words and time. We decided that our efforts would be better spent contacting the 14 Democratic Senators who are wavering on the promise of a public option.

And that is where the fun begins.  

We discovered that you cannot contact a United States Senator from another state.  Their email addresses are kept secret and and their websites allow only people in their states to contact them. Sending them snail mail takes months to get there.

We hatched a plan that eventually worked to let them know that we are holding them accountable as Democrats.

Meet our friend in Washington, DC, Barbara Heil and read her story of mystery, intrigue, hack-off and fun -----

Barbara's Story ---

The good folks at the Fort Bend Democrats Club in Texas voted to buy some copies of JFK'S Profiles in Courage and mail them to 14 Democratic Senators who have been wavering on the Public Option (Baucus, Bayh, Lincoln, that whole crowd).  In making inquiries, they discovered that it could take as long as THREE MONTHS to be delivered, because of all the permutations post-anthrax attacks snail mail has to go through.

So, I volunteered to hand deliver them myself.  The books were shipped to me directly from Barnes & Noble, and handwritten notes to accompany them were sent to me separately.  The notes were not sealed; indeed, everything was completely open for inspection.  Imagine my surprise when my husband (who was commandeered to take pictures to send back to Texas) and I got to the Hart Senate Office Building and were told that we were not allowed to deliver anything--unless we had Government IDs, which we didn't.  The guard explained that it would just be too difficult if everybody brought stuff--while he was speaking to us, we were the only people in the lobby.  While I stood there looking flummoxed, he relented and told me about the "alternate" deliver center in an obscure building a block away at the foot of 2nd Street, NE.

So, we went to the building and were buzzed in.  There was a young man behind a bullet-proof glass arrangement who then told me that I could only have TEN items delivered at a time.  He checked my ID, took my picture, had me jump through a couple of more hoops, and then had me double-bag the books before putting them though an x-ray machine and then dumping the package through an unlocked door with a hand-written piece of paper on it that read "Senate."  The next day (yesterday) I went back and went through the whole thing again, save for having my picture taken, for the other four books.

The whole process struck me as being truly inefficient, not to mention stupid, but it occurred to me that this isn't about terrorists anymore; no, it's about keeping people out of the faces of our representatives.

Further, as you know, you can't contact any of them through their web sites unless you are a constituent.  Which lets me out, since I have no Senate representation and only Eleanor to carry my water.  The Fort Bend Democrats are represented by two Republicans who, as one unnamed wag declared, are "dumber than bean dip."  They all worked very hard, along with me who sent some campaign $$$, to get Rick Noriega elected to the Senate last year to no avail.

Making it almost impossible to reach them about stuff we care about doesn't stop any of them, however, from soliciting all of us for donations.  I am beyond disgusted that I couldn't go to their offices, speak to a receptionist (or anyone else around who might talk to me), and drop off a book.  Worse, I really don't know how to get through to those many people I actually threw money at during the last two election cycles.

What am I missing here?  Is there some easy way to contact the offices of congresscritters?  Are we limited to using the phone and being blown off by a receptionist?

Barbara Heil

We agree with Barbara that Senators from all over the country freely contact us when they want money, but it's not a two-way street.  They want us to send money and then shut up.  I, for one, have given my last dime to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.

If it is this difficult to contact members of Congress, then the terrorists have won.
     The good news is that the books and notes finally got through to the Senators.  The better news is that we now know how to do it in the future:  You have to find the secret door with the words "Congressional Acceptance Site" on it.  We'll let you know the secret address if you want to contact a Senator.

By the way, the notes we attached were simple. They said, "Will your name be in the next edition? Please act with courage by supporting the public option for all Americans rather than appealing to the interests of insurance companies.  Thank you, Fort Bend Democrats."

If you want to contribute to help pay for this effort, please click here.  We've gotten a bit brave since this happened and are determined to be heard in constructive ways.  Check back often to read what activists do when activists are upset!

Barbara holding our copies of Profiles in Courage in front of the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building.