[CLUE-Talk] The government wants to ignore you.

[Dennis J Perkins]

The only argument I can see against email is that one person could flood them 
with email.  The same can be done with postcards and letters, but now it's 
going to cost money to buy stamps.

It sounds like it's harder to ignore email than letters.


> What follows is a bit of a rant. That's to say that I haven't really
> even tried to make a pass at making this a well-formed argument yet.
> Yet.
> 
> There is, at least in my opinion, a big problem brewing: The Forest
> Service is trying to pass a rule that would allow them to ignore e-mail
> from Web forms and postcards -- basically requiring anyone who wants to
> comment on a public issue to write an "original" letter (not sure what
> the criteria would be for "original").
> 
> Right now, it's just the Forest Service, but I could see this being
> adopted by other federal and state agencies -- if that happens, it will
> seriously hamper efforts by open source projects and groups like the EFF
> to rally opposition or support for issues.
> 
> I know -- how much time does it take to write a letter, right? Well,
> think about this -- most of us have jobs that consume at least forty
> hours a week - then we have social lives (I hope) and possibly families
> that require attention. Most of us like to eat occasionally, shower
> (again, I hope), read a book, take a walk, watch a movie, and even use
> our computers for recreation -- in other words, people are damn busy. 
> 
> And there are a lot of political issues that require attention. A lot.
> Removing the ability to register your position through a Web form or by
> sending a pre-printed postcard is, in effect, an effort to reduce public
> activism by reducing the amount of time that each person has to comment
> on public policy. I'm not sure if it would rise to the level of being a
> restriction of freedom of speech or not -- I think a tricky lawyer could
> make a case for it, but this early in the morning I'm having a hard
> time. 
> 
> I know that many Cluebies differ strongly on a lot of political issues
> -- but I think that if you're willing to take even a little time to fire
> off a letter or post card or e-mail, even through a Web form, that your
> opinion should be counted. I don't think there should be an effort
> requirement -- I don't care what your opinion is, I just find efforts to
> disregard it dangerous. 
> 
> Here's why -- any well-funded group can afford to have lobbyists and so
> on working on an issue full-time. Citizens who might oppose some of
> those issues don't have the luxury of that kind of time, and we need
> tools like Webforms to be able to voice our opinions and to try to steer
> our government the way we the people want it to go. Removing those
> tools, but allowing lobbyists and such, is a definite blow to our
> rights. 
> 
> There's an article about this here:
> http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5695813.htm
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> Zonker
> -- 
> Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier
> jzb at dissociatedpress.net
> Aim: zonkerjoe
> http://www.dissociatedpress.net
> 
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