Contact Your Elected Officials

"All the darkness of the world cannot extinguish the light of one small candle."

Tips on writing to, speaking with, and contacting our elected officials

Although email and online petitions make it very convenient to contact elected officals, typed and printed letters communicate your committment and personal connection. Write to your representatives and explain your concerns.

• How to Write Your Congressman
• Tools for Citizens

Phone and fax numbers, snail mail and email addresses.

• Senate & Congress
• Senate
• Congress Merge
• Congress

Vital resources for researching voting records, biographies, financing, issue positions and more.

• Office of the Clerk
• Project Vote Smart
• People for the American Way
• OpenSecrets.org

Groups, Actions and Organizers

Online petitions and links to groups and organizations for activists.

• World PROUT Assembly: What Can We Do
• Democratic Parties 50 State Strategy
• Grassroots Tools from CivilRights.org!
• Senator Barbara Boxer: Issues & Petitions
• Citizens for Legitimate Government
• Take to the Streets
• The Democracy Cell Project
• pfaw.org Action Center
• Operation Democracy
• Greenpeace Actions
• Not in Our Name
• Impeach Central
• Media Channel
• Start Change
• AAUW

The Nation: Act Now!

• Defining Patriotism - The first sentence of 'The Nation''s prospectus, dated July 6, 1865, promised "the maintenance and diffusion of true democratic principles in society and government," surely a patriotic sentiment, as was the magazine's name. Since that time 'The Nation' has attempted to represent and give voice to the best of American values and culture and has steadfastly resisted any and all efforts through the years to brand dissent as unpatriotic. In the summer of 1991, in the aftermath of the first Gulf War, the magazine published a forum exploring the question of what is patriotism -- Is there a patriotism that is not nationalistic? How does the historic internationalism of the liberal left relate to the concept of patriotism? What do you value in the traditions of your country? Read More ...
• Food Independence Day - Thanks to the Serious Eats site for alerting me to a new July 4 campaign. Kitchen Gardeners International (the same people who successfully led the charge for a White House Kitchen Garden) are encouraging patriotic citizens to celebrate America's independence by feasting on locally grown and raised food on the fourth. The related "Food Independence Day" petition asks the nation's 50 governors to participate and share their recipes and the names of the local farmers, fisherman, and food producers whose ingredients they'll be using. So far, more than 5,000 people have pledged to eat a meal made with local food on July 4. Check out the map of where things are planned. If there's nothing near you, join the campaign and add yourself. If you don't think you can create a mostly local meal, pick one dish and try to include one local thing--maybe some mint from a community garden in a drink, broccoli from a CSA, watermelon from a roadside stand in a salad, or a roasted pastured chicken from a nearby farmer's market. Read More ...
• Chipotle Injustice - Last week, leaders of the food justice movement -- including Eric Schlosser, Raj Patel, Frances Moore Lappe, and Robert Kenner, producer and director of the new documentary Food, Inc. -- sent a strongly-worded letter to Chipotle demanding that they "work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers as a true partner in the protection of farmworkers' rights." The letter comes in the wake of a recent breakthrough for the Campaign for Fair Food -- Whole Foods' announcement that two of Florida's leading organic producers, Alderman Farms and Lady Moon Farms, will implement the company's agreement with the CIW, including the penny-per-pound wage increase and a strict code of conduct. For decades, Florida's farmworkers have faced terrible abuses and brutal exploitation. Workers earn sub-poverty wages for toiling 60 to 70 hours per week in season, and some have even been chained to poles, locked inside trucks, beaten, and robbed of their pay. Read More ...
• Time for Lunch - I'll be coming back to this project but for now watch Slow Food USA president Josh Viertel announce the group's new Time for Lunch campaign to get real food into public schools. Children who grow up exposed to food that is fresh, local and good for them tend to adopt healthy eating habits that last throughout their lives. Conversely, if they're brought up on junk-food, it'll take a real effort for them to wean themselves of the habit as they grow older. The schools can be a big part of the solution 'if' school systems are provided with sufficient resources to serve real food instead of the overly processed fast food that endangers children's health. Read More ...
• WeWantThePublicOption - 'This post was written by Sarah Jaffe, a blogger, freelance journalist and Nation intern.' Seventy-six percent of Americans, according to a recent poll, approve of the health insurance plan that Barack Obama proposed on the campaign trail, which includes a public health insurance option. Read More ...

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The Nation: Alerts

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