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From: rick@uwmacc.UUCP (the absurdist)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Lets get 1600 Penn. Ave on the net.
Message-ID: <509@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 1-Dec-84 18:09:05 EST
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.509
Posted: Sat Dec  1 18:09:05 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Dec-84 05:30:37 EST
References: <330@stcvax.UUCP> <210@calmasd.UUCP>
Reply-To: rick@uwmacc.UUCP (Rick Keir)
Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center
Lines: 48
Summary: Of course the President doesn't answer his own phone...

[ Are you out there, Bug? ]

	I don't think there's any point in sending E-Mail to the 
White House;  or any other form of mail.  
	You should call your Congressional Representative,
or write him/her.  They represent a small enough segment of the
population to actually read what you say;  and are selected by
a small enough segment of the voting population (ESPECIALLY
during the primaries) to be motivated by self-interest to
pay attention to you.  I know from experience that at least
some read anything that is addressed to them personally.
	
	<....> represents omissions from the jpm's article.

In article <210@calmasd.UUCP> jpm@calmasd.UUCP (John McNally) writes:
>About six weeks ago I called the Exec Office to express my views
	<.... on the recent bombings of abortion clinics ....>
> The person dealing with me on the phone seemed
>uninformed.  They responded to my concern with "Bombings??  I
>hadn't heard anything about that", with a unsubtle implication that I
>was just a crank caller.  
	
	"I'm sorry, I'm not authorized to answer that question.  Have
you contacted your local Business Office? Their phone number is..."
	I used to say that a lot at a job I had one summer.  No business
allows just anyone to be making policy statements over the phone.
Why should the Govt. be any different?
	
>	<....>  Until we can change
>the attitude of the White House toward such forms of contact with
>the American people, I don't think that any such mechanisms are
>very useful.
>John McNally  Calma  11080 Roselle St. San Diego CA 92121
>...{ucbvax,decvax}!sdcsvax!calmasd!jpm     (619)-458-3230
	
	Politics is a collection of substitutes for personal contact
between the candidate & the voter. There just aren't any good ways  
to allow contact with the President. There ARE ways to get personal 
contact your Representatives, so use them.

-- 
"But Dinsdale...Dinsdale used  sarcasm!"
	we all know where this quote came from, don't we?

Rick Keir -- MicroComputer Information Center, MACC
1210 West Dayton St/U Wisconsin Madison/Mad WI 53706

{allegra, ihnp4, seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!rick