A) Has anybody noticed how many politicians are resigning to avoid scandal? This should be a signal of hope: Contrary to popular belief, our voice DOES count and our opinions DO matter! Perhaps the lone voices won’t be heard, but the voice of the masses have ENORMOUS power, enough to make even the President’s advisor and the US Atty Gen’l resign!

So here’ s the hope. SCANDALS WORK! If we want to get rid of any corrupt politician who is doing us harm, scandals are the way to go. As ugly and vicious as I have always thought such things to be, perhaps there also is a time and a place to use “the uglies” to our advantage. When someone is undermining human freedom, perhaps the ugliest thing we can ever do is to sit back and do nothing, in the name of “a positive agenda”. Sometimes the greatest evils are committed by the silence of good people.

B) An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure:

While any Candidate is running for public office, we can check out who their financial backers are, to determine any political bias. And we can ask others to do the same. In fact, we can do so en masse, using letters to the editor, blogs, and e-mails as our tools.

C) Hitting corporations and policies in the pocketbook is the most powerful message we can ever deliver. Write (along with other friends) to grassroots organizations, using the “Contact” Button on their websites, and ask them to organize boycotts of any given corporation which is corruptly “buying” political policy, and the message to the corporation and the politician alike will be stunningly clear.

D) Letters to the editor are the most-read pages in the newspaper, are read by politicians as indicators of public opinion, and are a powerful way to network. We never know who we are going to reach: A politician? An activist organization? A movie maker? Don’t laugh and don’t think that is unlikely to happen: In my experience, all three have occurred precisely because of letters I have written. And that is not meant to be a self-congratulatory statement: Instead, it is a message of hope to us all. And being printed is much easier than people think. It does not take creative writing skills to be published: All it takes is to represent one of the many cross-sectors of public opinion which editors want and need to publish. Go for it and you’ll be part of the stream to influence change!

E) An activist’s tip:
A brilliant activist I have been fortunate enough to connect with DUE TO LETTERS TO THE EDITOR I HAVE WRITTEN!! (A signal of hope to us all!) stressed that “It is assumptions which motivate people to act, or not to act. To identify and rebut those assumptions is key”. Asking questions stimulate thought in the public mind, and the conclusions reached based on those assumptions are much more likely to be believed than any strong statements we may make.

Example: “If you were President of the USA, would you yourself be capable of leading our nation to war and putting our kids in harm’s way just for a lie?” (And the answer is obvious: “Of course not”). This can be the precursor to realization that nothing can be put past any person who is capable of such things. Including, for example, planning 9-11.

However, if you simply tell them that they planned 9-11, and give all the best scientific reasons to support that conclusion, they still will dismiss even the best of evidence. Denial can be a very thick wall to push past, and the best way is to get people arriving at their own conclusions with questions as the channel to that realization, rather than to “be positional” with convincing facts.

F) Organize a citizen’s meeting with a politician

Yes, this can be done! You can meet with your Senator or Representative face-to-face in their office, in groups or singly, by calling their office and asking for their Scheduler. You will probably meet with their Aide rather than the politician directly, but such meetings can be very effective.

Tips:

You MUST be a resident of their constituent area. Or, use a person from their area as liason.

The best thing is to hitch up with an established activist group, which is more likely to be scheduled than just Any person walking off the street, so to speak. But you also can try for it on your own: After all, the politician works for you! Remind them of that!

G) Writing hard-copy letters to politicians is much, much more effective than e-mails. Phone calls are second in line. And don’t forget to ask the Aide you speak with to personally deliver the content of your message as a Congressional talking point!

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