[extropy-chat] the (scary) future of pro-death bioethics andlegislation

[Adrian Tymes]

--- devon fowler <dfowler282004 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Interesting take on politics I'm not completely sure
> what you exactly mean by "Knucklehead's Council for
> Bioethics,"

He means it's the President's Council.  Ergo, it
derives its authority from (and can best be influenced
by) the President, not Congress.

> and I don't exactly know how to
> influence
> beyond my one vote unless I have some respectable
> position in politics which I don't.  

In theory, writing to your congressperson gives a bit
of extra attention towards your point of view,
especially if you send a handwritten postal note
(precisely because it takes more effort than printed
postal mail, email, or anything sent over the phone
wires - the effort discourages spammers and gives you
credibility).  In practice, I haven't found that it
helps much.

Now, there are ways into the system.  Certain events
that are open to anyone, but again it takes effort to
go there and put on a good performance.  Most
congresspeople, I hear, have occasions when they do
speak directly to their constitutents - for inquiries
about this, a simple email may suffice, since you're
not trying to influence them until you're at the
event.  Go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and find the
right links (probably under "Quick Links", in their
current layout) to get information about your local
Senators and Representatives.  (Warning: although you
will likely get contact informatoin, not all of them
make use of a Web presence; the less high-tech the
area they're representing, the worse the odds.)

Overall, these ways take effort.  Consider that there
are many people who make careers out of doing this for
others.  You may have some technical advantages over
them (specifically, by being on this list, you may
have seen posts about ways to get information and do
intellectual tasks faster, which definitely comes into
play here); they have the advantage of experience, and
possibly of being able to put more time per time (say,
40 hours a week) into this particular effort.  It's up
to you to make it balance out, or even unbalance in
your favor, should you wish to pursue this path.