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Title: Letters to Legislators

Original CoS Document (slug): [[https://conventionofstates.com/letters-to-legislators-1|letters-to-legislators-1]]

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Created: 2019-02-05 01:49:46

Updated: 2020-11-27 03:00:00

Published: 2020-11-20 00:00:00

Converted: 2025-04-14T21:02:18.443969935


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How many times have you had something you wanted your legislator to take action on? 

If you are like most of us, that could easily run into the hundreds. The next thing you are likely to do is to go to your computer or smartphone and fire off an email or two requesting your legislator(s) to follow up on what you are interested in.\\
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You might expect that your legislator considered your request in light of the many requests he or she might get on any particular day or week.\\
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When you don’t get a response in what you think is a reasonable time frame, it may be pretty natural to think, "Well, he probably had to consider a lot of other incoming ideas, and mine just was not good enough to compete with all the other opinions."\\
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But you also may think you need to take another run at it, using a different mode of communication. So, you pick up the phone and dial his state office number. Likely as not you’ll end up speaking to an administrative assistant, who will politely listen to your concerns and let you know they will be passed on to the legislator.\\
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Okay, that should do it.\\
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Some time goes by, and still no response. The next step is to just type him a letter. That certainly should get his attention.\\
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If it doesn’t, the only thing left is to try to make an appointment with him. And you start the process again with an email. Again, you’ll likely get to an office phone call before you have a snowball’s chance on a hot summer day of getting any response.\\
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By now, you are probably asking what the heck is wrong with this guy.\\
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Doesn’t he know I am a constituent?\\
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You may get so frustrated that you just stop and consider whether you should have voted for someone else.\\
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All of the above is not unusual, because most of us have no idea how busy these people are, and the number of emails and phone calls that must be fielded by their legislative assistant every day.\\
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The assistant has the task of grouping all similar gripes and requests and passing the tally onto the legislator. At this point, your legislator probably has not seen your name attached to anything. She only has a tally of constituent concerns. In theory that should be enough to decide what to take action on. But you still do not know the details of what is happening.\\
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But there is a way to reach your legislator almost immediately and get a response to your concern.\\
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The one thing that gets a legislator’s attention faster than anything else is a handwritten letter.\\
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That is partly because they see so few of them. Handwritten letters have become like the dinosaur. They have nearly become extinct, because we have found so many other easier ways to communicate.\\
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Telephones, text messages, voice messages, and typed messages have all become such an important part of our daily lives that we have all but forgotten how to get out a pen and write a personal letter.\\
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Heck, we seldom even drop off a handwritten note on an office mate’s desk.\\
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We have become extremely spoiled by technology. We have nearly lost the skill to put pen to paper and express our thoughts in hand-printed or cursive notes and letters. As a result, our communications have become extremely non-personal and a bit cold.\\
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So is it any wonder that a legislator values your handwritten letter? To him or her, it shows that your communications are so valuable to you that you’d lay yourself open--with slightly bad penmanship, a few cross-outs and rewrites, and a smudge here and there--to take the time necessary to communicate from the heart.

One thing we have learned over the years is that our legislators have every handwritten letter given to them by their administrative assistant. That is powerful!\\
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One of the other things that are available to you with typed media is the backspace key. You can undo a multitude of mistakes with the press or two of that key. 

To get the same result with a pen and paper you must use some forethought and skill to plan what you are going to write. Or just rely on a lot of cross-outs. The forethought and planning is no small task in these days of constant distractions.\\
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By now you should be getting the picture that any handwritten letter is so far superior to an email that it would likely be treasured by anyone who receives one.\\
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I still carry a photograph of a handwritten note given to me by a third-grade student who I tutored in reading. It meant a great deal to me that he expressed his heartfelt thanks for my part in his being promoted to the fourth grade. 

There was poor penmanship, poor printing, and plenty of erasures, but above all plenty of heart.\\
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And that is what I think our legislators see when we take the time to put pen to paper and ask them to act on a request or thank for something they have done on our behalf.\\
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Just so you know that this is not all just hype from me, I recently sat down with pen in hand and thanked my senator for co-sponsoring S112. Then I asked my representative if he would become a co-sponsor on H3125. 

I don’t know what their response will be, but I do know that I will get a lot more mileage out of both letters than I would have from an email, a text, or a phone call.\\
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I highly encourage each one of you to handwrite a thank you note or a request to your legislators. That just could be what pushes our two resolutions into the “passed” status.\\
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What I’d like every person who reads this post to do it while you still have your computer on, is to type out a letter to each of your legislators to ask them to support and co-sponsor S112 and H3125. If they are already supporters or co-sponsors, type out a thank-you to them.\\
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Now, after all the mention of handwritten letters, why in the world would I ask you to type a letter? Remember what I said about the convenience of the backspace and type-over options you have on your computer? Well this part of the call to action is just to get the letters formatted the way you want them to look.\\
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Now comes the important part. Pick up a pen and paper, and hand copy the letters you just typed. Then mail them to your legislators.\\
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You now have the satisfaction of knowing that you have taken the most important action to let your legislators know what you are thinking.\\
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You can be assured your letter will make it into their hands and be well-received, because you have taken a step very few of us take.\\
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It is virtually guaranteed that your legislators will look very favorable on your effort to contact them in such a personal way.