33, 7
Michelle and all the other blogs I link to regularly are calling for people to call Congress and oppose the immigration bill. They say people should call all weekend and let their voices be heard.
As a person that was semi-involved when a whole lot of Conservatives were talked off at the Senate for not being able to get up or down votes on SCOTUS nominees, I can honestly say that calling the hotline or majority leaders office, or really any office in D.C. will result in your message being deleted.
Do you want to know what happens? An intern (me) picks up the phone:
"Majority Leader's office, Stacy speaking."
"This is Ted Smith from Murfressboro, and I'm a constituent of Sen. Frist."
"Good morning Mr. Smith! What can we do for you?"
"I'd just like you to tell the Senator that I think it's a shame that he can't get an up or down vote on these nominees. I've been watching CSPAN all night and I think it's just a shame. You tell the Senator that he has my vote to change those rules."
"Thank you for your support Mr. Smith. I will let him know. Have a great day!" And the phone is returned to it's cradle.
In front of me sits a piece of paper with something like 3 columns. I can't remember exactly. Down the right hand side are a list of all the issues people are calling about. SCOTUS was right near the top ... so in the very right hand column, we put a line indicating another person had called about that issue.
Now, this would be fine, and indicative of how the consituency feels. However ... this piece of paper never left the desk. This could have been only the office I was in ... but I doubt it.
And the majority leader's office? They send everyone to a voice mail system to leave a message. Do you know who listens to those messages? Interns. Do you know what they do with those messages?
33, 7.
33 to skip through the message, 7 to delete. We had to make room for more calls as the mail box would get full.
Now I'm not saying it's a complete waste of time, because the staffers do talk and if they phones ringing off the hook about something that gets noticed and passed on through word of mouth I'm sure.
But if you really, really want what you say to be counted, write a letter. Not an email. A letter. A letter they weight more heavily, because an individual has to collect their thoughts, use punctuation, stamp address the whole bit. I can't remember the exact number but it's like an email was 1 for 1 (1 email = 1 persons thoughts) phone call was 1 for 100 or something, and a letter was 1 for 1000. For every 1 letter they got they assumed 1000 people felt similarly.
So while Michelle is directing people to the Immigration Hotline, that sounds to me like the Majority Leader hotline. Which in the end ... 33, 7. Not a bad idea to fill that sucker up and make some intern spend a few hours deleting stuff ... but if you want to be listened to ... call the local office in your area or write a letter to the local office in your area.
I just wanted to share that.
As a person that was semi-involved when a whole lot of Conservatives were talked off at the Senate for not being able to get up or down votes on SCOTUS nominees, I can honestly say that calling the hotline or majority leaders office, or really any office in D.C. will result in your message being deleted.
Do you want to know what happens? An intern (me) picks up the phone:
"Majority Leader's office, Stacy speaking."
"This is Ted Smith from Murfressboro, and I'm a constituent of Sen. Frist."
"Good morning Mr. Smith! What can we do for you?"
"I'd just like you to tell the Senator that I think it's a shame that he can't get an up or down vote on these nominees. I've been watching CSPAN all night and I think it's just a shame. You tell the Senator that he has my vote to change those rules."
"Thank you for your support Mr. Smith. I will let him know. Have a great day!" And the phone is returned to it's cradle.
In front of me sits a piece of paper with something like 3 columns. I can't remember exactly. Down the right hand side are a list of all the issues people are calling about. SCOTUS was right near the top ... so in the very right hand column, we put a line indicating another person had called about that issue.
Now, this would be fine, and indicative of how the consituency feels. However ... this piece of paper never left the desk. This could have been only the office I was in ... but I doubt it.
And the majority leader's office? They send everyone to a voice mail system to leave a message. Do you know who listens to those messages? Interns. Do you know what they do with those messages?
33, 7.
33 to skip through the message, 7 to delete. We had to make room for more calls as the mail box would get full.
Now I'm not saying it's a complete waste of time, because the staffers do talk and if they phones ringing off the hook about something that gets noticed and passed on through word of mouth I'm sure.
But if you really, really want what you say to be counted, write a letter. Not an email. A letter. A letter they weight more heavily, because an individual has to collect their thoughts, use punctuation, stamp address the whole bit. I can't remember the exact number but it's like an email was 1 for 1 (1 email = 1 persons thoughts) phone call was 1 for 100 or something, and a letter was 1 for 1000. For every 1 letter they got they assumed 1000 people felt similarly.
So while Michelle is directing people to the Immigration Hotline, that sounds to me like the Majority Leader hotline. Which in the end ... 33, 7. Not a bad idea to fill that sucker up and make some intern spend a few hours deleting stuff ... but if you want to be listened to ... call the local office in your area or write a letter to the local office in your area.
I just wanted to share that.
Comments