Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Unlike some in the cyber-advocacy world, I agree with Congress's idea that people e- mailing their elected officials should demonstrate they are constituents ["Finding Fault With Logic of Congress's E- Mail Plan," K Street Confidential, June 12]. This is, after all, a representative democracy. Constituents are the first responsibility of any member of Congress, and the only way to tell if someone is a constituent is to know his or her full street address.

However, unlike filling in an address on a Web form, recent requirements that people solve even simple math or logic problems in order to send an e-mail serve no other purpose than to limit constituent contact. Members of Congress argue that these restrictions are necessary to reduce the spurious e-mails sent on behalf of constituents. Frankly, this is ludicrous. These extremely rare occurrences do not explain the majority or even a small percentage of the increase in communications with Congress.

The real problem is that lawmakers and their staff simply cannot listen, much less respond, to all the noise coming from their constituents. The solution is not to decrease the volume, but to filter it. Members of Congress should continue to attach as much attention as they deserve to form letters, while focusing their efforts on those personal and thoughtful communications from constituents who are truly engaged in a particular topic.

This being the case, citizens must accept that when they send form letters, they are likely to get form letters (or sometimes no letters) in return. Alternatively, they must be willing to support increased funding for additional staff to respond to all those form letters. Either way, it is clear that Congress's recent ploy flies in the face of the open and free democracy of which we are so proud. Citizens should speak up -- through e-mail, fax or carrier pigeon if necessary -- to suggest Congress put a stop to this nonsense.

STEPHANIE VANCE

Washington

The writer is a speaker and trainer on grass-roots advocacy.