No matter your political leanings, your position on, say, gun control, or the government’s use of drones abroad and domestically, or on the matter of e-commerce taxes, or the sequester, or the death penalty - you have opinions. And oftentimes, especially in times like these, or as we get older or perhaps just more involved in civics, we want to engage our local representatives, our senators, or our town hall, mayor, aldermen, and make ourselves heard, influence change, or organize a petition.
When you have a cause or when you want to affect change, how do you do that? How do you engage your local representatives (or senators etc.)? This is not a rhetorical question; I’m genuinely looking for honest and candid responses. So I guess the questions are as follows:
- Have you ever written a letter or an email to your state reps or senators?
- Have you done so more than once?
- Did you ever receive a response?
- How meaningful was the response (versus a boilerplate ‘thank you’ letter)?
- Did he/she take action based on yours?
- Have you ever gone above and beyond writing a letter (i.e., organized a protest, or a petition, or otherwise)?
- How do you keep tabs on your representatives and ensure they’re representing you well (i.e., how do you know what they vote for/against, what legislation they sponsor, where they truly stand on specific issues, how ‘in the pocket’ they are with lobbyists, unions)?
I’d truly love your thoughts, and those of your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers. Comment below and please, share this post (click here if you don’t see the comment box).
