Politics and cycling

[derailed]

I'm thinking about writing a letter to Rep. Boehner of Ohio, and am kind of nervous about it.

The blog I found his statements on are here;
http://bikeportland.org/2009/01/12/r...ican-families/

I have a letter all written up, but I'm scared to send it! It's polite, but I'm afraid that either it will be ignored, or I will get in trouble

Does anyone have experience with this? Any words of wisdom?

edit: I had the thought of printing it out and cycle-hand delivering it to my local representative, asking him to bring it along to D.C. Is that better or worse?

[PamNY]

Send the letter. Remember that you are paying this person's salary -- he works for you.

Here's what my local advocacy group has to say:

http://www.transalt.org/takeaction/write

Pam

[sfa]

Well, you're not going to get into trouble (unless you make threats in the letter), and generally any letter you send to an elected representative will get a response, even if it's a stock letter saying "thank you for your thoughs blah blah blah." If he's your representative, his staff will probably take some time in the response to explain to you why Mr. Boehner feels the way he does (and it'll have nothing to do with cycling--he'll talk about unnecessary expenses and wasting government funding and so forth. He wants to keep your vote, or sway it if he never had the vote to begin with.). If he's not your representative, the letter will not hold much weight. You'd do better to write to your OWN representative and tell her/him that you heard Mr. Boehner's remarks and hope that she/he doesn't agree with his thinking on this matter.

But absolutely you should send a letter if this is something you care about greatly. These people work for us, and it's up to us to let them know how we are thinking. Otherwise, how will they know how to represent us?

Sarah

[Tri Girl]

I remember that guy on Face the Nation. I wanted to punch him. Then again, in all fairness, I want to punch a lot of politicians. Our representatives are supposed to represent us, and so many of us complain yet never voice our opinions directly to the people who are supposed to be supporting us (myself included). Even if you get an answer that is only meant to appease you (like Sarah said- and she's probably right), at least you made your voice known. I'm sure you've backed up your letter with excellent reasons why this would be not only appropriate, but necessary in our changing times.
Good for you!!! Let us know what you hear back.

[Trek420]

Send the letter, encourage others to do so.

Maybe he needs to read this?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090127...20090127132619

I forget the exact figure, you can look it up but something like an astonishing 60% of car trips in the USA are within a very bikeable 9 miles or so. It seems to me the easiet way to build 60% more roads is ... give us safe routes to ride!

[Irulan]

It's not like it's going to go into your FBI file or anything. They just sort responses and keep a tally.

[smilingcat]

Simple rule:

Don't make personal threats or to the family,

Don't use foul language,

May not like the guy but show respect. "Rep. Bohner said the following '..."

Stay to the point and be concise. You can be nice and still be very firm in what you say.

And do send it to your representative.

Nothing to be afraid of. Heck I'm speaking in front of the city council tonight with community TV pointing and video-recording me. The other day, I spoke in font of rather hostile residents about 200 of them maybe more... I'm still here and happy.

A happy cat,
Smilingcat

[Biciclista]

please write the letter, and please do not be afraid. He gets lots of letters. He might not personally read it, but he will be made aware of your sentiment
"we got 12 letters today that disagreed with you sir"

please dont' be afraid. in this country we have something called freedom of speech, and it's not only your right, it's your responsibility to use it!