Write to Power through Take Action Alerts

I have felt a renewed sense of commitment to Writing to Power in the past week. Writing a letter to my local, state, and federal representatives is a historic tradition! It is a time-tested way of making contact with key decision makers as well as agency appointees. You can write a letter and send it by post, you can fax it, or you can email. What ever method you choose you will be making your voice heard.

My first letter to power was in the 5th grade. I, along with my entire 5th grade class, wrote a letter to President Ronald Reagan. I can not remember what I wrote, not in the slightest. But, I still have the 8x10 glossy and short response send by his office.

In this last week I have written three letters to congress. Two were asking members of House and Senate to increase funding for the Head Start program: H.R. 2123 and S. 1107. I sent these letters because I saw an alert to TAKE ACTION at congress.org.

The internet has really allowed a new level of ease for concerned citizens. Whereas before....I am not even sure HOW people ever followed policy BEFORE the internet....I am just too young and green for that. Before I found congress.org., I would frequent Thomas.gov, which is the online legislative library, to try to figure out what bills were coming up before the House and Senate.

Now, I can check congress.org, which will very often give me links to Thomas.gov, if I want to learn more about who is sponsoring the policy, how many times it has been reviewed, where it is in legislative process, and if it has been voted on and, even more importantly, WHO voted for it.

If you are interested in knowing more about what issues are on the table for when Congress comes back into session, go to Congress.org, on the left side of the page you will see a link to Take Action on Issues link under the heading "by the people" or you can just click here: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issuesaction/orgs/

At the time of my visit, there was a link to a Take Action Alert posted on April 14, 2006 by RESULTS telling me that 2 Minutes Can Protect and Expand the Head Start Program!

The Take Action Alert let me know The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will soon be looking at the Head Start reauthorization legislation (S. 1107) and that it will go to the Senate floor soon. They invited me to write my Senators and Representatives.

Sure, there was already text in a box and I could have just entered my name, email, and address and sent the letter off; but, I have a personal story about why Head Start is important to me. I have been engaged in educational policy for 6 years and have read various research studies about the program, some of which seem less than hopefull. However, I understand Head Start as necessary element to school readiness! Children must learn the culture of schooling in order to succeed and that may very well be what Head Start does best. I also have a little cousin who attended Head Start. Not only did his teacher visit him at home when he was sick, but she also helped tutor his mother so she could earn her GED!

I strongly believe that it is important to enter a bit of what is personal into letters to power. Stories stick in peoples' minds. Stories can change perspectives. And, that little bit of personal lets POWER know that I am engaged in this policy, it is real to me and I am not just sending on the voice they have already heard again and again and again.

I did, however, maintain some of the key action points that the pre-scripted letter to power from RESULTS has crafted. I believe that when we write our letters we need to be clear not only WHY we are interested in a policy change but we also need to be clear in telling power what we expect them to do!!

Through the ease of internet activism I have been able to send letters to five members of Congress in under 10 minutes. I sent letters to Senator Warner, Senator Allen, and Representative Moran of Virginia, where I presently live. I also sent letters to Senator Specter and Senator Santorum of Pennsylvania, the state where I was born and raised. I will probably also send letters to Senator McCaine and Senator Kyl just because I also lived in Arizona for a spell.

Witness the magic of internet activism.


Since acting on their Take Action Letter Writing Campaign I have explored RESULTS and am very impressed with the many ways they help make activism easy, I will return to next week to discuss RESULTS and how they may help you to GET HEARD!!