Sunday, October 20, 2013

Do You Write Your Elected Officials?

I've been doing some thinking about the moral implications about being a citizen. Sure, you can express you opinion when you vote, but if there is an issue of "fierce moral urgency"™ about which you are concerned, do you have a moral obligation to let your representatives know your feelings? What if you know they disagree and are unlikely to ever change their mind?

The conclusion I've reached is that since morality is a question of my conduct, I have an obligation to act. To that end, I sent the President a letter last month—an honest to goodness pen on paper letter. I will not bore you with the details except to say that it expressed my views on abortion and sought to bring him around in just a small way. I figure I need to be sending letters about once a month just so I can cover all the people and all the issues on a regular basis. This also means I'm behind already.

—the Other Cliff

4 comments:

  1. When are we all getting ours? ;-)

    Letter writing is a lost art. My only fear is that letter reading is even further lost as a result.

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  2. the Other cliff10/21/2013 08:55:00 AM

    With my handwriting the art of reading is even further lost. Perhaps this campaign will will help on both fronts.

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  3. We are getting ours now....good and hard....and the BEST is yet to come.

    I would disagree with the statements regarding letter writing and reading. Rather, I would submit that the entire art of communicative reception (aka....LISTENING rather than hearing) is long lost. We have far too many intellectuals today who love, prefer, and approve of the sound of their own voice emanating from the vacuous space contained within the human skull. It is if the TMJ anatomically closes the middle ear canal such that sound waves cannot penetrate to the ear drum.

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  4. I use the form online. I wrote to Sen Warren on Responsible Fatherhood (you know what I'm really referencing) and I received a standard but very positive response. I posted about it last Friday.

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Please be forthright, but please consider that this is not a barracks.