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But Please Let Up On The E-Mails!

     Before I came to Washington, I imagined a senator would get a small pile of mail each day. And he would sit down in the afternoon, with his secretary on the other side of the desk, and, as the afternoon sun shone through his office windows, he would leisurely dictate replies to those few letters.

     The reality is that a senator’s staff moves a MOUNTAIN of many thousands of e-mails and letters each day. Because we now live in a world of letter and e-mail campaigns fueled by lobbyists. It’s the American system, it’s how the Congress finds out what the American people want, and the system works in its own strange fashion. But it’s not easy on the people who work on Capitol Hill.

SO PLEASE LET UP ON THE E-MAILS!

     Yes, it’s wonderful that all Americans can write to their representatives in Washington. But, please, do not e-mail your senators and representative in Congress about every little thing on your mind.

     Josh Tauberer, the fellow who runs GOVTRACK, one of the “insanely useful” sites, does not recommend you contact your representatives in Congress about every little thing. That’s because, as he’s discovered, “Congressional offices are ridiculously overloaded with communication with the public. 313 million emails came into Congress in 2006, which is in the ballpark of 300-2000 emails per office per day. And given the current office budgets allowing for just a few people (in the House) to be dedicated to dealing with communications like that, there is no way, as passionate as they are about it . . . for them to respond to all communications.”

     I worked as a legislative correspondent in the Senate before the days of billions of e-mails, and even then we all felt we were drowning in a sea of demands from the public. Each senator and representative gets a computer printout listing how many letters or e-mails are for and against each popular issue. They have it easy. But it’s not like that down in the trenches. The letters and e-mails hit in wave after wave, as endless as the sea. They show no mercy. And EVERYTHING IS A DEMAND. Weeks go by and not a single thank-you.

     Have you thanked your representatives in Congress lately? I’m not even suggesting you thank the poor schlubs in the senator’s or representative’s office, the ones who labor, often at low wages, recording your opinions, answering your phone calls, and trying to get off timely replies to your letters. Just a general thank-you will more than suffice.

     And now, I hear, a lot of the e-mails are fraudulent, and the people in Congress are beginning to discount them. So let up, people. Unless you have a good reason to write, please don’t.

     Except for a thank-you. That will be a novelty and will absolutely make someone’s day.
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