Activity Requests: Tuesday

YOUR House and Senate Members – Where do they stand?

[Note: As always any sample messages, letters, etc. that we provide are just that, “samples.” The samples are just what we’re sending out from this end and you are strongly encouraged to use your own judgment, voice and perspectives. Our prose, tone and approach can always be improved upon and quite frankly a good mix of perspectives is better than following our samples verbatim. We’re not the most reverent and that may or may not be good (we’re just expressing one opinion among almost a 1000 different member opinions). We don’t do messaging for the group (nor do we aspire to) or ever speak for the group, but instead merely facilitate our members’ ability to speak at once for more power and volume. If you’re a “professional communicator” or would like to help with recruiting, research, administration, etc. shoot us a note and we’ll be happy to get you involved. There is no lack of work to be done.]

While, as noted above, we never try and dictate or even influence what you say or how you say it, Question #! in the sample letter below is explicitly written for zero wiggle room whatsoever. Every member of Congress already knows what this legislation is about and any “political speak” or wiggling we’ll simply take as a “No,” so don’t water your letter down with any wiggle room whatsoever! Whatever responses you receive in return to Question #1 in the sample letter below, we need to know by you providing feedback with each Representative's and Senator's name and with either a “Yes” or a “No.” If they send you a wiggle “political speak” reply then simply mark them down as a “No.” This is where we begin to turn up the heat and count them as either friend or foe.

1) Find Your 9 Digit Zip Code
Before you begin, you’ll need your full 9 digit zip code (because that makes it more difficult and less likely you’ll write). Simply go to the link below and plug in your address and it will provide your full 9 digit zip. Save it for future reference, you’ll need it again.

http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp

2) Contact YOUR member(s) the House of Representatives

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Simply click on the link above and follow the steps, select your state, enter your full 9 digit zip code, click “contact my representative,” answer the stupid security question, plug in your personal information, paste in the sample message you will find below (edit/change to fit you) and hit “send message.”

3) Contact YOUR Senator(s)

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Simply click on the link above, choose your state, choose your senator(s), go to their website(s) and navigate their intentionally complicated maze looking for “contact info.” then follow their steps, copy and paste in the sample message below (edit/change to fit you), hit “send.”

Via the following link, check to see if your member of Congress is the Sponsor or one of only 50 current Cosponsors, if they are, remove Questions #1 and #2 from the sample letter below and revise the letter to be a motivation tool.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-3149

[Sample Letter to Your Members of the House and Senate]

Dear Honorable [fill in the blank]

As a regular voter and your loyal constituent, I have three simple quick questions I need answered at your earliest convenience. The straight forward simple questions are as follows:

1) Do you support passage of HR3149: The Equal Employment for All Act now sitting stalled in the House Financial Services Committee? I’d like a simple straight forward “Yes” or “No” reply. Very similar legislation is already law in Hawaii and was passed but vetoed in California, so please do NOT reply with a “political response” such as, “I’ll have to wait and review the legislation when it comes up for a vote before I can provide an answer.” A reply like that I’ll take as a “No” and react and vote accordingly going forward.

2) In the event that you replied “Yes” to question #1 above, are you willing to sign on as a co-sponsor of this critical legislation? “Yes” or “No”

3) In the event that you answered “yes: to question #1 above, what have you done thus far to push this stalled legislation forward and what actions will you be taking near term to get this legislation out of committee and passed quickly?

If you answered “Yes” to questions #1 and #2 above then simply let me know your answers and your support is much appreciated! If you answered “No” to either of the questions, then understand that the historic vote last week in Massachusetts was not a Republican win, but instead was the voice of humans voicing their complete frustration with “Business As Usual” in Washington. The message sent was all about jobs, the economy and the American elite in Congress and on Wall Street taking care of each other only. The recent show of indignation for the cameras by Congress at the outrageous bonuses being paid out to Wall Street seem more like crocodile tears than real concern for voters.

If there was any real concern, Congress would have already passed HR3149 by now instead of working behind the scenes with the corporate elite to stall it. After all, it was Congress that enabled Wall Street’s greed in the first place and now you refuse to even lift a finger to help combat the damage. No matter what happens, it seems the American elite always take care of their own ranks and the people be “damned.” Speaking of people, also known as humans, take a look at the number of causalities caused by the greed of your friends on Wall Street:

* The economy has lost more than 7.2 million jobs since this recession began, 2 + million just since May
* For each rare job opening that does exist, an average of 6 humans vie for that one position with 15.3 million of them being unemployed
* 1.4 million bankruptcies were filed in 2009 and the number just keeps growing
* More than 20 million Americans received unemployment compensation in 2009 and BTW unemployment benefits don’t fix a damaged credit report

These numbers represent either damaged or completely ruined personal credit reports and guess what? The credit reports don’t belong to the millions of people - they largely belong to your friends on Wall Street whose greed destroyed the economy. First you lend them our tax dollars to save their necks, we get locked out of the workforce via poor credit reports because of their greed and they collect billions of dollars in bonuses. Do you think that is fair?

If you answered “No” to questions #1 or #2 above, then that simply says one thing. You believe it is fair for Americans to be tossed into a potential catch 22 scenario where bad credit = no job and no job = bad credit with no possible way out. It also tells me that you stand with your friends on Wall Street instead the 90% of your constituents who are suffering under this inhuman corporate guillotine of this workplace discrimination.

I respectfully thank you for your time and I anxiously await your answers to my three very simple straight forward questions. Since none of the three questions are complex in the least, a quick and speed reply is I believe a very reasonable request.

In the meantime, most especially if you answer “No” to my first question, please place your personal credit report on your website for my review or if you prefer, attach it to an e-mail or mail it to me. While I don’t believe it will give me even a slight clue about your qualifications to work for me in Congress - it’s only fair for me to have it while HR3149 sits stalled and I’m being subjected to such a humiliating invasion of my privacy just for the right to work in a nation where I am a citizen.

[End Sample Letter to Your Members of the House and Senate]