Thursday, I contacted each of my Senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, to ask them not to support renewal of the Patriot act. As I recall, I said it was against the spirit and wishes of the People who live in Maine, where we value our freedom. In Snowe's, I compared it the McCarthyism, though I did not use that term, trying to be more subtle and create less hostility.
And it was an eye-opening lesson on how difficult it can be to make your voice heard in the halls of political power in this country.
I have not heard back from Susan Collins office yet. I received an email from Snowe's office yesterday, after she voted for cloture, voted in support of the Act, and I wanted to share it and my thoughts on it with you, after the fold.
I used the webforms available on each senator's website,
Senator Snowe and
Senator Collins, the method of contact they say they prefer. They discouraged email contact, which, as a journalist, is how I track correspondence. The information they required for contact was my name, zip code, and email address. Because I've been concerned about the amount of private information collected about people, I never provide more information then is required.
Here, unedited, is the response I received from Senator Snowe, who remember now, does not have my mailing address or telephone number:
Thank you for contacting me by webform.
If you sent an email to olympia@snowe.senate.gov, you will not receive a
response. That email address has been disabled. If you wish to contact
me, please visit my website at http://snowe.senate.gov and fill out the
webform located there.
I will follow up by mailing a written response to all Maine residents who
include a postal address along with their comments or requests. If you are
a Maine resident with a timely or urgent request, you may wish to contact
my state office nearest you, as follows:
AUBURN
2 Great Falls Plaza
Suite 7B
Auburn, Maine 04210
207-786-2451
AUGUSTA
40 Western Ave.
Suite 408C
Augusta, Maine 04330
207-622-8292
BANGOR
One Cumberland Place
Suite 306
Bangor, Maine 04401
207-945-0432 or toll-free 800-432-1599
BIDDEFORD
231 Maine St.
Suite 2
Biddeford, Maine 04005
207-282-4144
PORTLAND
3 Canal Plaza
Suite 601
Portland, Maine 04112
207-874-0883
PRESQUE ISLE
169 Academy St.
Suite 3
Presque Isle, Maine 04769
207-764-5124
Again, thank you for being in touch.
-- Senator Olympia Snowe
So other then Snowe's email, I have no record that I contacted either using their webforms; no record of my comments. There is no repeat of my comments in Snowe's email. And becaue I didn't send her an email, which is what I typically do when I'm writing to people who are connected to the web, I don't have copies of my comments in my 'sent box,' which, as a journalist, is how I track correspondence.
First, an admission. I have had so little contact with my Senators offices as a citizen that I did not realize I would end up without a copy of my comments. I have a habit of many journalists -- not getting involved politically because it gives you an appearance of bias; so I haven't written to them about my political concerns as a citizen. (My concerns did guide my choice of assignments as a journalist, however.) And when I have needed to contact my senators as a journalist, I would do it by phone, announcing who I was and what I wanted. If I didn't get help immediately, I typically received a call back within a day or two from a PR hack who would be very accomadating.
So Snowe's response,
If you wish to contact
me, please visit my website at http://snowe.senate.gov and fill out the
webform located there.
I will follow up by mailing a written response to all Maine residents who
include a postal address along with their comments or requests.
shows that I will not receive a written response, since I did not provide my mailing address. (We're facing a federal defecit here, doesn't it cost more to buy print and mail paper then to send an electronic response when you have a valid email address?)
Now, please notice the first two lines of the response, remember, it's generated by her webform, responding to my email address:
Thank you for contacting me by webform.
If you sent an email to olympia@snowe.senate.gov, you will not receive a
response. That email address has been disabled. If you wish to contact
me, please visit my website at http://snowe.senate.gov and fill out the
webform located there.
If I'd contacted her using her email address, the way most people seem to communicate today, nothing would happen; even though she's already thanked me for contacting her using her webform.
I have to conclude that her office does not give a shit what I have to say to her UNLESS I'M IN A POSITION TO MARKET THEM IN THE MEDIA. they're making it as difficult as possible for an average citizen to contribute. Until yesterday, I thought she was one of the few tolerable Republicans left in power in this country. Remember, Time magazine has called her one of the most powerful women in the country. Now, I am sickened by her. After her vote, it became obvious that she doesn't represent the people of this state, she represents the greedy, power-hungry mob that had taken over our government.
The citizens of Maine work hard for a living, frequently holding dozens of odd jobs to piece together a marginal living. It's cold here, things are far apart here, insurance is horrifically expensive here, health care is expensive here.
We also have a grave threat to our security, here in the state where Mohammad Atta spent his last night on earth. We know the 9/11 Comission feels about the Bush Administration's efforts to protect us, efforts repeatedly endorsed by Snow, are woefully inadequit. But the security threat I'm worried about already harms more of us then Atta ever did. It's chemical warfare, though most people don't call it that. It's pollution in the air and water, mostly generated in the industrial belts of the bright red mid-west. According to the EPA, we are among the cleanest states in this country when you look at the pollution we make ourselves. We jump up to one of states with the poorest air quality when you look at the non-point pollution coming from other places. As a result, children here have high rates of asthma. Our water is full of mercury from the rain, so our state government advises to only eat one or two of the trout teaming in the thousands of miles of beautiful streams that are part of the back-bone of our tourism-based economy, after all, we're Vacationland. It says it on our license plates.
Like every other state in this country, we've have had our children, husbands, wives, mothers and fathers, killed and maimed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
What we get, what Snowe and Collins are a part of, is a government that will claim the right to spy on us and strip us of our civil liberties. A government that will lie to us about the reasons for war. A government that refuses to let our poor citizens who can't afford health care RE-IMPORT drugs manufactured in this country from Canada at cheaper prices. (This is insane. Why are they cheaper after re-importing them?)
I could go on about the business climate here, but if you follow the link, you'll see that it's also a problem for individual citizens. In this state, more then 90% of the residents work for small businesses with 50 or fewer employees. Snowe is co-chair of the Small Business Committee. And, people here say, we have one of the worst business climates in the nation.
I honestly believe Senators Snowe and Collins do not represent me or my fellow Mainacs. In this blue state that's voted for Gore and Kerry in the last two elections, they owe the people of Maine an explanation of their support for the Bush Administration.