Hi, I see people say to “call or write your representatives” in reaction to gestures wildly everything happening right now. But who exactly do we contact? How do we find them? What do we say? What do we ask of them? Is this a phone call? Email? Happy to do it, but I just don’t know where to start.
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This question stands as evidence as to why the Dept of Education needs to be abolished. Billions spent and you don’t even know how to contact your representatives.
You can find contact information online. There are also lots of sites not only with tools for finding the correct people, but form letters.
Don’t use the form letters. Not one bit. These take no thought and no effort, and everyone who gets them knows this. They are ignored.
For the best impact, write letters that are sent by mail. Express your own opinion, in your own words. Don’t worry about legal jargon. These are rare. Even senators will pay attention if they get as few as a couple dozen letters in the mail about an issue.
You can find a lot of their information on their own websites or other areas online. Start here if you aren’t sure who your reps are: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member. They should have either an email or phone publicly listed – you can call or email, but just know it’s not going to their personal cell or inbox (hopefully this is obvious lol). They typically have a staff team who listen to/read messages, who then likely provide an overall summary of key trends for the congressperson or pass on specific messages that really stand out. Some congresspeople are more receptive and involved in their constituents feedback than others – some genuinely like to hear and learn from their community members, while others couldn’t care less and don’t give them any attention. Hope this helps!
The app 5 Calls is great. It gives you options on issues you care about, tells you who to contact, and gives you a script on what to say.