AmericanProtest.net > Letters Of Protest

by Wayne Boettcher

I've heard the complaints, that writing letters to politicians and the newspaper does no good. Frankly, that's wrong. Take the case of Gentala vs. City of Tucson. While calling a local radio show, I had city councilman Fred Ronstadt agreeing with me that Christians were being discriminated against in this case, and that he had gotten some letters and emails. "How many?" demanded the talk show host, Bert Lee. "At least five or six," Ronstadt replied. "That's nothing!" Mr. Lee derisively retorted. I defended the lackadaisical Christians of Tucson by explaining how the local paper and TV news slanted or ignored the story, but Bert had made his point. Nobody cared. Eventually the Gentalas won through the courts but it never should have gotten that far.

The newspaper of a city is a business, yes, but it also represents the city. And when a newspaper espouses off-the-wall liberal values and slants news, they do it in your name...if you don't protest. That's why I sometimes write a short note disproving a slanted story or wacky editorial with the caveat "not for publication" included and email it to the the major editors of the paper. At least they know they're not fooling everybody, all the time. On the other hand, I have had one letter published, though many "for publication" were not.

The newspapers aren't the only entity that "represent" you. Your local city, county, state and federal representatives are also doing business in your name. If you are convinced a Senator will never change his view, you should still let him know when he does not follow the view of the average American good guy. At least you can say to others that the disputed policy is not occuring in your name. Even judges are supposed to be on the side of Americans. When judges persecute landowners and make fanatical liberal rulings, they think you approve...if you don't protest.

Even the extremist group ACLU probably believes that "most people agree" with their tyrannical socialist views. After all, how many reasoned and clearly written letters do they get explaining how wrong they are?

Today I will go over some letter writing techniques and even some new ideas. First let me tell you I understand that we are all busy supporting and spending time with our families. But we're in a war here...a war we could lose. The liberals want to bring an atheistic communist utopia to our nation-and it's up to you to stop them. That's right, my friend. You.

Can you spare one hour a week to write a letter? Even a post card? If you can, I urge you to join my Once A Week Campaign. Even once a month would be good! Let's talk about methodology.

Emails: Once they were considered just trash by government representatives, because of the anonymous nature of most emails. So few included their name, address and phone number that politicians would just count how many were for and against...and even then often ignore the results. After all, they concentrate on their constituents. How would they know who is one? Now web forms have pretty much solved this problem. If your Representative or Senator has a web form, it's better to use it. Just fill out your name and address like it says. It's just like a mailed letter to them.

Email can be used to write a letter to the editor of a newspaper. Follow the rules the paper lays out on their website and include your contact information. Even if a politican has no web form, if you include your contact information and start out by telling them that you are a constituent, most emails will get read. There are exceptions, of course.

Faxes: Faxes are a great way to communicate with your protest target. For one reason, the anthrax scare has delayed snail mail sent to public entities. One great way to fax is to have a "fax driver" installed as a printer. Then you can write a letter on your word processor and print it to the fax driver. The fax driver will ask for the fax number and send it away to print on their fax. I have sent many faxes this way. The free fax driver I use is called V3 Call Center. It's easy to install and use. When I write a letter on the word processor to fax, I use slightly larger fonts to make sure it comes through clearly and is easy to read.

Another way to fax is to send email to companies that fax them for you. You can find them by typing "email to fax" in a web search page. They will usually charge you a fee.

Finally, you can fax by picking up a fax machine cheap at a yard sale. I got a great one for $5 that I used for years every time I needed to send something that was already printed. The ink was so expensive I didn't bother. I only used if for sending, anyway. I just got a better one for free from my Dad.

Postcards: Here's a great idea whose time has come, thanks to the anthrax scare. A great way to make your point with a quick note, especially with a politician who is not in your district. To help get your postcard read you could send one with a beautiful landscape or interesting picture, or even a funny cartoon. If you really want to get fancy, you could have your own post cards made at a print shop or make them yourself with some software. Preprint labels/addresses with government officials or news media you plan to send to a lot, then stamp them and have that stack ready to go. You could even get a rubber stamp with an address you plan to frequently write to. Hand letter your postcard's actual protest message for that personal touch to get noticed! I just got one from my new Sunday School class that was very effective. I'm glad they were welcoming me and not protesting me!

Telephone: This is sometimes a good way to get your protest point across, if you just want to make a quick point or find out the stance of your government representative. Sometimes you may want to follow up your call with a fax or postcard, however. You will usually never get through to the representative but tell whoever you get your point about whatever madcap liberal agenda you wish them to take action against. If you hear a politician on a radio talk show, call as quick as you can and ask them questions to force them to take a stand and make your point. Same thing with a town hall meeting. It's a verbal letter. Use your chance to talk directly to them! Politicians like to waffle. Don't let them. Ask embarrassing questions but in a nice polite way.

Snail Mail: Not recommended due to the anthrax scare but sometimes necessary, especially if you want to send registered mail. As long as you're going this far, you may as well use nice stationary and envelopes. Don't expect them to get to reading it anytime soon.

Hand Deliver: Hey, if you are near their office why not hand deliver the letter?

Telegram: You spends your money and you takes your chances. Telegrams have the advantage of rarity and seem important and so may get noticed more readily.

Open Letter: Send the letter to them but also send it to a media outlet. This is great for embarrassing public officials. For instance: "Why do you claim to be Catholic but support abortion?"

We've discussed methodology, now lets look at content. What you write is very important. Here are some Do's and Don'ts:

Do:

Keep current: Write on what's in the news right now, although of course there are exceptions. If you feel like writing on an issue and it's not in the news, hey, fire away!

Put it in your own words: Form letters are a drag, my friend. If you take a little time to rephrase it will be well worth it.

Be credible: Cite your sources and any bill or policy you are talking about, although it's not always neccessary. In one letter to the newspaper I mentioned 101 National Guard troops died in Vietnam; I didn't need to name the source because few would challenge this fact and it's easy to verify. On the other hand if you want to say abortion causes breast cancer you might state "according to www.abortionbreastcancer.com 28 out of 37 worldwide studies have independently linked induced abortion with breast cancer" because liberals and newspaper editors will not take your word for something like that.

Describe the action you need taken by others or state what action you will take: Tell the politician to start a bill for your position if there is not one pending, to co-sponsor or vote for it if there is a bill. Tell them the specific policy you want changed. In a letter to the editor you can lead by example, for instance: "I'm not buying any widgets until Widget's Inc stops discriminating against Christians by not allowing employees to have a Bible Club" or "I'm writing my mayor about this deplorable policy of no preaching in parks."

Speak as if they can actually understand simple logic: Even if the organization you are writing to are themselves the crazy liberals who are causing the problem, just pretend that they have common sense and would listen to reason.

Make a joke or humorous point: In letters to the editor, liberals make the most ridiculous attempts to be funny I have ever seen. Surely we can do better than that! To be frank, a good joke could well make the difference in how much attention your letter to an elected official gets. Keep it clean and if it fits in with your point well and good but you can always throw in a short one liner as a PS. There are plenty of good clean jokes on the internet. On some serious subjects a joke is inappropiate, of course. Use good judgment.

Follow up: Here's where the rubber meets the road. Let's say you send a letter to the mayor telling him he is discriminating against the Boy Scouts by not allowing them use of public facilities. He writes you and says they can't help the Boy Scouts because the city is against discrimination. Write back! Tell them no, the city are the ones who are discriminating. He writes back and re-iterates. You write back and re-re-iterate!

You see, if they send you a smarmy letter back and don't get a reply, they think they've won you over to their freaked out liberal viewpoint! Another way to "reply" is to call a local talk radio show and read the main points of their oily return letter, asking other people to write in answers to their elitist reply. You may not see an obvious victory but they will be stonkered and discombobulated, believe you me!

Don't:

Call names: Don't say "you are a fool for taking this position" rather say "this position is foolish" or "you may have been misled into thinking this position is correct..."

Use physical threats: Don't threaten physical violence, unless you want the FBI at your door threatening you.

Curse: Cursing makes you look stupid and vulger. Let them curse. You take the high road.

Complicate or multiply issues: Keep it short and to the point.

The most important thing to "do" of course is to sit down and write the letter! Things are getting bad in our world today and every letter counts. It's time to stand up for America!

Wayne Boettcher is the owner of American Protest

Related Links

Minnesota Game and Fish Coalition Letter Writing Instructions

Family Research Council Congressional Directory

No tax increase thanks to letters, calls, visits and emails!

Email this pages link to a friend