Celebrate the Fourth: E-Mail Your Representative

Computer Life column for 7/5/97 by
Richard Gordon

"Allons enfants de la Patrie!"

Whoops, wrong patriotic holiday. Bastille Day isn't until the 14th.

"Oh say can you see. . . ."

That's more like it. Yesterday, we remembered the founding of our republic with parades, picnics, traffic jams, and fireworks displays.

I talked last week with one of my regular readers about how my column could help celebrate The Fourth. She suggested that the patriotic thing to do would be to talk about how the Net can help you participate in government by making it easier to find information and to write our elected officials.

"There go the on-line fireworks displays," I said.

Actually, it's a great idea.

Two summers ago, I gave an Internet workshop for an Unnamed Delaware Official and several of her colleagues. During a break, several of us were scouting around to see what elected officials had information up on the Web.

When we came upon the Web area of a Congressman from a Northeast State, I naively said, "Cool. He's got his campaign speeches from his last two elections and a bunch of other remarks on line."

The Delaware Official started, then blurted out, "I knew it was dangerous. I'd never put my speeches on the Internet."

As several of us questioned her, I realized that what she was really doing was offering a backhanded compliment to the democratization of information that the Web represents. If campaign speeches or voting records are on line, they are easier to find. A couple of clicks and the electorate is informed: the public record is made even more accessible to the public.

A good thing, right? Unless you plan to change your message depending on your polling data or your audience-downstate vs. upstate; union vs. chamber of commerce.

The best place for a Delawarean to start searching the public record on line is at the State's official home page (www.state.de.us). In addition to information from the State, that document includes links to counties, cities, and towns that have information on line (www.state.de.us/govern/intro.htm).

Want to e-mail an elected official? All of our representatives in Washington and many of our elected state and local officials have e-mail addresses to facilitate communication with constituents. Here are the Web addresses for many of our elected officials; all of those listed include an option to send e-mail.

Senator Roth's Web area features a picture of him and a large dog (www.senate.gov/~roth/), but is a solid site with current information.

Senator Biden's site includes the usual information (www.senate.gov/~biden/), but as of July 2, his web area hadn't been updated since December 1996.

Congressman Castle has provided a nice set of web resources (www.house.gov/castle/), but has also allowed his site to age a bit.

Governor Carper's Web site includes links to much useful information (www.state.de.us/govern/governor/introgov.htm), including previous State of the State addresses.

Lt. Governor Minner's Web area is downright folksy (www.state.de.us/ltgov/lgindex.htm) and includes e-mail links not just for her but for much of her staff.

Only a handful of State Legislators have e-mail addresses. Those that are available are at the following Web pages: House Members (www.state.de.us/research/house/house2.htm), Senators (www.state.de.us/research/senate/sen2.htm).

Similarly, some New Castle County Council Members have public e-mail addresses (www.newcastlecounty.com/ccbios.htm).

Lots of countries use fireworks and parades to celebrate their equivalents of our Fourth of July. But not all the citizens of those countries have the right to speak up to the government.

Special interest groups can seem awfully powerful, but the Web and e-mail allow us new ways to stay informed and to let our individual voices be heard.

Copyright © 1997, The News Journal Company

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