🚀 go-pugleaf

Lar Kaufman sez:

> Finally, if some really responsible reps agree to treat
> email as the equivalent to letters sent via snail mail
> (or better, as equivalent to telegrams) and agrees to 
> accept them electronically, the real breakthrough will
> have come.

Once the messages are on paper and in the hands of Congressional
staffers, I'd be astounded if many members of Congress *didn't* treat
them as the equivalent of papermail or telegrams.  Ignoring a
communication from a constituent is a big no-no among most members of
Congress.  (This is not true of petitions and form letters, however, so
as you pointed out the project will be much more successful if users
can be educated to write their own thoughts in their own words.)

That's also a good point that forward-thinking members of Congress might
agree to accept their EFF-mail electronically before Congress as a
whole decides to do so; so this isn't an all-or-nothing proposition.

Ultimately this sort of access should be expanded to every bureaucratic
office in the Federal (and state and local) government, but I think
Congress is the logical first step.

-- Prentiss Riddle ("aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada") riddle@rice.edu
-- Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer.