{"id":563,"date":"2009-09-17T22:56:43","date_gmt":"2009-09-18T04:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/?p=563"},"modified":"2010-06-15T10:23:24","modified_gmt":"2010-06-15T16:23:24","slug":"campaign-to-snailmail-all-535","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/17\/campaign-to-snailmail-all-535\/","title":{"rendered":"Campaign to snailmail all 535 United States Congresspeople to ask for a genuine public option"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I hereby announce my campaign to snailmail all 535 United States Congresspeople personalized letters before the year is out, in favor of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/sandy-goodman\/an-open-letter-on-the-pub_b_277064.html\">a genuine, government-run public <em>option<\/em><\/a>. So far I&#8217;ve snailmailed 4; 531 to go.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/robertreich.blogspot.com\/2009\/06\/latest-public-option-bamboozle-and-what.html\">Not a co-operative<\/a> (such as Senator Max Baucus&#8217; plan)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/jason-rosenbaum\/a-trigger-for-the-public_b_277910.html\">Not a trigger<\/a> (such as Senator Olympia Snowe supports)<\/li>\n<li>Not <a href=\"http:\/\/images.huffingtonpost.com\/gadgets\/slideshows\/1398\/slide_1398_20093_large.jpg\">whatever it is the strident rightwing wants<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"center\" >\n<div id=\"attachment_575\" style=\"width: 130px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/timothymorgan\/75699271\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-575\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-575\" title=\"envelope\" src=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/envelope-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Image: Timothy Morgan\" width=\"120\" height=\"120\" align=\"aligncenter\" srcset=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/envelope-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/envelope-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/envelope.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 120px) 100vw, 120px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-575\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Image: Timothy Morgan)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Here&#8217;s sufficient info to <a href=\"http:\/\/usgovinfo.about.com\/od\/uscongress\/a\/letterscongress.htm\">learn how to snailmail members of the US Congress<\/a>, regardless of what your stance is on whatever issue. Here&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/twitwall.com\/view\/?what=000E050802\">a frequently-updated priority list of which US Congresspeople to contact in favor of a genuine public option<\/a>, though you of course might choose others to write.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe you doubt the efficacy of writing US Congresspeople. I understand, especially when, for instance, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.opensecrets.org\/news\/2009\/06\/will-12-million-a-day-convince.html\">the pharmaceutical and health product industries lobbied the US Congress $1.2 million per day in the first three months of 2009<\/a> (not counting advertising &amp; other efforts, including whatever&#8217;s under-the-table). Despite much information to the contrary, citizen snailmail (especially when personalized) does reach US Congresspeople, or at least their staff, without too much delay. Evidence:<br \/>\n<UL><br \/>\n<LI>In 2009 <em>The Washington Post<\/em> persuasively reported <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2009\/08\/04\/AR2009080402223.html?hpid=topnews\">a professional lobbyist firm snailmailed astroturfed (fake grassroots) letters to US Representative Tom Perriello<\/a>. So if <em>they<\/em> expect fake letters to work, <em>you<\/em> should expect real letters to work. I can&#8217;t resist mentioning Shakespeare: as the <em>New York Times<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/08\/19\/opinion\/19sager.html\">put it<\/a>,  &#8220;Generated mail is a pretty old idea. In Shakespeare\u2019s &#8216;Julius Caesar,&#8217; Brutus is persuaded to assassinate Caesar in part by letters of support from the public \u2014 letters that were actually faked by Cassius &#8216;in several hands &#8230; as if they came from several citizens.'&#8221;<\/LI><br \/>\n<LI>On 10 Sept 2006, <em>The Pottsville Republican &#038; Evening Herald<\/em> published a story about a 10-year-old girl, Taryn Kitchenman, who wrote US Representative T. Timothy Holden a letter. She wrote him: &#8220;I was wondering instead of putting [the new playground] downtown right by the old one, could you put it in Arnots [her neighborhood]. I was wondering because we only have one playground and it is not that good. We don&#8217;t have swings, we don&#8217;t have a good basketball court. I am only 10, I am not allowed downtown. Try and help me.&#8221; She received a reply <em>the same week<\/em>.  Presumably this was a snailmail letter (and not fax or email &#8220;letter&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p><\/UL><\/p>\n<p>To prove that I&#8217;m serious about my campaign, below I&#8217;ll post the letter I sent US Representative Nancy Pelosi yesterday. In an attempt to protect myself against discrimination and stigmatization, I censored out a very small portion of the letter, though presumably the letter is now public record somewhere. I&#8217;ve also <a href=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/letternancypelosi.pdf\">PDF&#8217;ed the letter so you can see the formatting<\/a> in case you want a guide for your own snailmail. Because you&#8217;re going to write your own personalized letter(s) \u2014 or do something equivalent or better \u2014 right?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nDouglas Lucas<br \/>\n[street address]<br \/>\nFort Worth, TX 76109<br \/>\n[email address]<\/p>\n<p>The Honorable Nancy Pelosi<br \/>\nOffice of the Speaker<br \/>\nH-232, US Capitol<br \/>\nWashington, DC 20515<\/p>\n<p>16 September 2009<\/p>\n<p>Dear Representative:<\/p>\n<p>\tI&#8217;m writing to support your insistence that a healthcare reform &#8220;bill without a strong public option will not pass the House&#8221; (your <em>Press Release<\/em>, 3 Sept. 2009), to agree with your statement that if &#8220;a vigorous public option is not included, it would be a major victory for the health insurance industry&#8221; (your <em>Press Release<\/em>, 3 Sept. 2009), to ask you to continue to insist on a strong, government-run public option \u2014 which, as you know, does not mean a co-op plan such as that of Senator Max Baucus \u2014 and to ask you to fight any spin attempting to pass off a co-op plan as a &#8220;public option.&#8221; I&#8217;m a self-employed writer and tutor in Fort Worth, Texas, and, just out of college, I&#8217;m working toward a public-school teaching certification. Like many Americans, I have a pre-existing condition \u2014 in my case, [type of pre-existing condition]. I lose my BC\/BS disability coverage in February.<\/p>\n<p>\tMy medicine for this one illness alone costs nearly $1000 per month. Without reliable health insurance, I cannot responsibly teach public school. Sure, a school would provide me with group coverage, but what if I were laid off? COBRA only goes so far; high-risk pools only go so far. Just as you chose a career in civil service to help others, so I want to help others, and a government-run public option would give me a strong safety net so I could focus on teaching. A co-op plan wouldn&#8217;t have the membership clout needed to compete with private insurance. The Iowa state government tried a nonprofit co-op \u2014 and it died in two years (<em>New York Times<\/em>, 17 Aug 2009). Just like a trigger plan, a co-op plan would take longer to start than a government-run plan, and we don&#8217;t have any more time. According to a 2007 <em>American Journal of Medicine<\/em> study, an American family files for bankruptcy in the aftermath of an illness every 30 seconds. In 2009 the <em>Center for American Progress<\/em> explained that every day, 14,000 Americans lose their health insurance: 2,190 in your state, 470 in mine. Every day. It is a moral issue.<\/p>\n<p>\tThank you for fighting in favor of a strong, government-run public option. Please keep fighting.<\/p>\n<p>Sincerely,<\/p>\n<p>[hand signature]<\/p>\n<p>Douglas Lucas\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"wp-flattr-button\"><a class=\"FlattrButton\" style=\"display:none;\" href=\"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/17\/campaign-to-snailmail-all-535\/\" title=\" Campaign to snailmail all 535 United States Congresspeople to ask for a genuine public option\" rev=\"flattr;uid:DouglasLucas;language:en_GB;category:text;tags:Health,Healthcare-Reform,Politics,Public-Option-Letter-Campaign,blog;\">I hereby announce my campaign to snailmail all 535 United States Congresspeople personalized letters before the year is out, in favor of a genuine, government-run public option. So far I&#8217;ve...<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I hereby announce my campaign to snailmail all 535 United States Congresspeople personalized letters before the year is out, in favor of a genuine, government-run public option. So far I&#8217;ve snailmailed 4; 531 to go. Not a co-operative (such as Senator Max Baucus&#8217; plan) Not a trigger (such as Senator Olympia Snowe supports) Not whatever [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,25,24,27],"tags":[100,112,111,28],"class_list":["post-563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-healthcare-reform","category-politics","category-public-option-letter-campaign","tag-health","tag-healthcare-reform","tag-politics","tag-publicoptionlettercampaign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":85,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1439,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions\/1439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/douglaslucas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}