Gavin’s Digital Diner

So, with all this talk about logic puzzles, the voice of the people, and the value of various types of communications, I decided to do a little homework. After all, I publicly committed heresy. And, while several people (privately) agreed with me, and others suggested that we get to make our voice heard every election day. I think one even argued that that should be sufficient. I disagree.

By my figuring, though, the founder’s of the United States thought this pretty important. Important enough that they wrote it into the First Amendment:

“Congress shall make no law … abridging … the right of the people … to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

(Just FYI: I removed the other extraneous stuff about establishment of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right of the people peaceably to assemble. Don’t need to clutter things up with those pesky rights too!)

I also, by the way, would argue that this implies that congress must also listen. That, I feel, is the bigger problem here. It’s not the medium, it’s the message.

As I said previously, we may be petitioning for redress – via email, fax, postcard and letter – but it doesn’t matter if no one is listening. That is the crux of the problem, and the heart of the issue.

Now, mind you, I know that it’s bad social research to gather conclusions from a sample of one; nevertheless I am going to do it. I think what I learned is instructive of something.

I decided to ask. I called Congressman SoAndSo (U.S. House). I first spoke to the legislative assistant that handles mail. His response:

“…every piece of mail is read and processed, regardless of the medium by which it arrives. We respond to every constituent letter.”

However, he did note that “we only have five or six permanent staff in the office, so we “prefer written [meaning physical] communications.” He also suggested that “faxes were the best way” to get in touch. The reason, they arrive as hardcopy and are easy to pass around.

Then I talked to the fellow in charge of their Web site. First off, he confirmed that they currently have a Web-form for email. “You have to go through our web site.” He also noted that they “filter out non-constituent email.” According to him, they prefer email because the constituents have to fill out an online form that provides all the contact info. More importantly, the constituents are writing about their own concerns and are sending their own “personal messages.”

All in all, he implied that there was no way to send them email except via their online form and that using some form of logic puzzle would only improve the process. When I mentioned that his colleague said that faxes were the best, his immediate response was: “I bet if you called 100 offices you’d get 100 different answers.”

I should note that – at least to me – their web site is already a logic puzzle. It took me quite some time to figure out that I had to navigate through half-a-dozen pages and menus to get to the form; worse than the State Department’s voicemail system. The sample logic puzzle system that is being talked about would be an improvement!

Anyway – just to be difficult — I asked about the several pieces of (unanswered) email that I sent through his Web site last year. (I hate unanswered email. GRRR.) He was embarrassed.

To add insult to injury, I followed this up by mentioning that I actually asked Congressman SoAndSo about it –- point blank — when I met him at a dinner several weeks ago. I asked why I never got responses to my email. That’s when the apology really started. Why was I having dinner with a congressman? – as I said before, money doesn’t talk, it swears.

So, in retrospect, here is what I learned from this little exercise and some other follow-up research:

1. If you want your voice heard in Congress, hardcopy works better than email. They seem to prefer either Fax or Post card. More on post cards below.
2. Post cards seem to be the really preferred choice, at least according to a couple of other calls I made. You can count them and pass them around. Moreover, unlike regular letters (and email for that matter), there are fewer security issues (no anthrax, no viruses, very little spam, etc).
3. Email, if it’s “real,” might have some impact. By real, I mean from a person, not a robot, and not boilerplate. But, I’m not convinced.
4. In the end, a phone call seemed to actually accomplish something. I at least got an apology.
5. Finally, the real secret was to somehow end up at a fancy dinner where you get to try to shove 105 issues into a 45 second handshake. It’s all about the access and while money might not buy you love, or an item on the agenda, it does get you access.

All in all, I still think the debate is a bit of a red herring. We’re busy fighting the good fight to ensure we can easily send email to congress, while the real problem is – regardless of the medium – no one is hearing the message.

Gavin Clabaugh - June 2006

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