Speak out for real

The alternate title for this post was "Pointless Petitions". But this is more than about on-line petitions.

Earlier this month Alex Elliot was engaging folks - like she always does - about something important. It led one commenter to suggest that maybe a petition should be started.

I nearly blew up at the computer.

Spit. Scream. Lose-my-mind-yell at the screen.

The best way to describe my job is I am a social change activist. However, I believe that it makes sense to work within our elected government to make that change happen. I've coordinated campaigns that created state-wide health coverage for all children, successfully secured funding for government programs that support small businesses in urban and rural areas and ensured that laws passed were actually implemented to help the people they are suppose to help. Just because a law is passed doesn't mean it is going to be implemented.

However, the most successful campaigns involve a grassroots "army". Folks willing to take time to let elected officials know that an issue is important for them.

Paper petitions are not the way to do it. Electronic petitions? What a waste of cyberspace.

Seriously. The best way to reach out to an elected official is with a letter. An old-fashioned paper in envelop with a stamp letter. The next best is a phone call. In my state (please note I wrote state not Washington DC) you get a representative or senator's attention when five different people call on an issue. Most states are like that (obviously not large mini-countries states like California).

A petition is useful in certain instances. As an organizing tool to get people engaged to make calls or write letters. As a high-profile way to show famous people support an issue. When 30 business leaders, celebrities or politicians sign a petition and it is published in the New York Times or Washington Post then it gets attention.

But that is all it does is get attention. It doesn't make a policy solution become a piece of legislation or budget amendment. A petition alone doesn't get legislators to vote a particular way on an issue.

So what can you do? Pick one issue you really, really care about. Find an organization that promotes your view and has a viable set of solutions in your state. Then figure out who your state representative and state senator are. And call them about the issue you care about. Tell them why it matters to you and why this policy solution will fix the problem.

Then mark your calendar to call back in 2-3 months. Ask what is going on with the legislation or budget earmark. If they can't answer you then ask them to call back with the answers. If they don't call, call again. Remember your tax dollars pay the legislators' and aides' salaries. You are their bosses. You are not being a pain. It is their job to make government accountable to their constituents. And you are their constituent.

Then call again in 2-3 months. One of my mentors says "a watched government behaves differently". Petitions don't mean you are watching. A phone call does.

Now, for a humorous take on my rant I give you Stephen Colbert.

As it says on the Comedy Central web site, "Make Stephen proud, young people - wage protests from the polite distance of your home computers."

Now make me proud. Let me know of any past phone calls you placed or letters you sent about an issue you cared about. If you do something after reading this post I will sing your praises in a subsequent post. Just do something. Be engaged. Watch our government.

Our government is based on the premise of an engaged population. So please, be engaged.