re i have seen the lobby and it is us in article c xxga gav ms uky edu morgan engr uky edu wes morgan writes you should realize that form letters are the worst way to influence your congresscritters exact copies are routinely placed on the lowest rung of the opinion ladder if you want to write and i think you should take the time to really write a letter things to emphasize excellent and helpful list deleted be concise don t ramble rants are definitely out of place cite references if necessary but only use accepted references like academic journals my neighbor jim is not a real refer ence wes s list is of do s and don t s for writing your congressional representatives is a fine one but i d like to encourage people to pay extra attention to the point above as cliched as the saying may be it s nevertheless true that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar while the writing styles prevalent on the net possess a certain charm please remember that the person reading your letter is likely to be uninfluenced or negatively influenced if you express your concerns in a way that makes you sound like a flake or a paranoid crackpot wild and unsupported accusations about the menace from the nsa will not carry much weight nor are overblown conclusions about the inevitable consequences of the proposal likely to convince especially not ones that attempt strained analogies to the rise of the nazi party please save the niemoller quote for another letter if you want your opinions to be taken seriously it is very important that you state those opinions in a manner that is understandable and seems reasonable to a layman don t overburden your reader with technical details or expect them to know the history of various encryption technologies before you mail it hand your letter to a non technical friend and ask them to sanity check it above all realize that legislators are often motivated as much by self interest as by anything else try to point out risks in terms that will be meaningful and motivating to them such as the loss of individual privacy rights or the damage restrictive export regulations do to american businesses ability to compete in the global marketplace pull the strings that you think will work with your legislator if your legislator is unlikely to be swayed by civil rights concerns then point out how a government granted monopoly for mycotronx damages the competitiveness of businesses in your district that manufacture or market phone or crypto technology mcnally
