O.K. I’ve been hearing a lot of excuses about why some of you don’t want to be bothered doing this!
Sorry folks, but saving America is going to be hard work and this is the least you can do—spend an hour writing a proper, polite letter to Senator Sessions who held a hearing last week on Obama’s final determination as President to bring in 110,000 refugees this fiscal year (the new flow began yesterday!). Go here for a report on the hearing. The security issues were front and center.
And, here is my post from Friday on sending testimony (a letter) to the Subcommittee.
I don’t want to hear about the postal service and how slow it is! I don’t want to hear that they don’t listen to us anyway! I don’t want to hear, why can’t we send postcards (make it easy for us)! Or, that the deadline is too soon and you don’t have an hour today or tomorrow! No excuses are acceptable.
The reasons to write are as follows:
~Senator Sessions took time to hold a hearing (only the second since 9/11) and should know that you care and appreciate that by taking time to write a real letter!
~Senator Sessions needs to know how many of you are working hard and are seriously concerned enough to write a letter (not just blast off an angry e-mail or send a pre-printed post card).
~Senator Sessions is an advisor to the Donald Trump campaign and maybe through your efforts this week, a message may be sent to the campaign about how much this issue matters to so many of you.
~Senator Sessions needs to hear that based on your experience you have suggestions for reforming the program.
~Your Senators and Member of Congress (however useless they are) must be copied on the testimony so they know that you are serious about your opposition to how the program is being administered. Attach a note to your testimony and ask that your representative respond that they received it.
~The Subcommittee can keep the hearing record open longer, but whether you make it into the record is not the important point (hardly anyone ever looks at the published document two months from now anyway). Just get something off in the mail tomorrow or use the fax number I provided here (or do both fax and mail).
~Your testimony now should be used by you locally to energize your fellow activists and it will be a good reason to get some local media. Send a letter to the editor of your local paper and say that you testified in writing to a Senate committee and summarize what you said.
~You are not expected to be an expert on the law, or sound like you are a lawyer!
~Your testimony does not need to be a monster summary of your situation and your concerns. You can pick one or two key points about why you believe the UN/US State Department program needs to be halted/reformed.*** They are spending your money for it! There is no wrong or right thing to say, just be polite. Hint! If you don’t have a problem yet where you live, then find some specific thing you’ve seen here at RRW that is particularly concerning.
Believe it or not, regular readers here probably know more about problems with the program than most Senate staffers do! You are educating them!
I am not a Pollyanna who thinks that Congress is going to save us tomorrow or this week. I am not raising your expectations that your letter will make THE difference, or any difference. I am saying that by not saying anything (by making excuses about the postal system) that you are giving up already.
Many of you talk big about how angry you are, you rant and rave at Obama and Hillary, you get into squabbles on social media, you are reading news all over the net all day and sending news to me, you send me ideas on what Congress should do, and then you tell me you haven’t an hour or two to write a letter to Senator Sessions, one of the few friends you have ever had in the Senate!
This is one easy thing to do, and if you can’t do it, you are not ready for the major battles ahead.
Endnote: I have gotten some copies of excellent letters to Senator Sessions over the last two days and I’m thinking about posting some of them (with permission of course). And, LOL!, I have a confession! I will have to force myself to write my letter today when I would rather be posting hot news here or tweeting or whatever!
***Update: For example, for those of you having problems (which is most of you) getting a copy of the FY2017 R & P Abstract, tell Senator Sessions about that. I will bet that most Senate staffers will have no clue what you are talking about, so you will be educating them!