Wheelchair Diffusion Blog

 I was somewhat outraged when an attempt to contact my congressman by email was blocked. I was even more bent out when the same congressman ultimately used an email contact as an opportunity to spam me.

It all started when I decided to be an activist on a disabilities issue. Hey, I’m willing to do my part in order to move things along. Anyway, I sent this rather polite email to my congressman, John Hall (19th NY), in which I voiced my opinion on a legislative issue.

I have never asked him for anything so I thought I would test the waters. Bad waters! I immediately received an automated response stating that his official email box is no longer monitored and that I need to go to his personal site and enter the message into a web form.

It turns out that the Honorables get a great deal of spam at their official email addresses. So much that many have decided to abandon them. Now, understand their definition of spam. Many of the honorables include emails facilitated by advocacy organizations as spam. You know, those web-based letters that require you to enter your address, make changes to a sample letter if you like, press a button and off it goes to the honorables that represent you.

Why are these considered spam? Because they get a great deal of them and they choose to assume that they are being sent without the constituents consent. They are therefore declared spam. There’s nothing like haveing one’s voice muted on an assumption by people that are supposed to be working for you.

From a Congressional Management Foundation study comes this:

"Many congressional staff doubt the legitimacy of identical form communications, and want to know whether communications are sent with constituents’ knowledge and consent. Half of congressional staff surveyed believe identical form communications are not sent with constituents’ knowledge or consent. Another 25% are unsure about the legitimacy of these communications. Additionally, 89% would like the ability to differentiate form communications generated from membership lists from those sent through direct constituent action."

I’m a game guy so off I go to Johnny’s web form where I enter and send my message. I promptly get an automated reply thanking me and almost as promptly the spamming begins.

To date I have received countless emails from the Honorable John Hall . Most are very uninformative pieces of self praise and assorted propaganda.

That’s spam John! It’s the same stuff that caused you to abandon your official work email. I signed up for no updates, no newsletters, no alerts and notifications, and certainly no information from an elected official who chooses to hear from his constituents only on his terms but feels free to contact them whenever the mood arises..

All I did was exercise my right to communicate with my representative. I have that right, and it is not limited to snail mail or emails or pigeons and it certainly doesn’t warrant a spam attack in return.

Representatives have “official” email addresses. We expect to be able to reach them there and not be sent off to a personal site that doubles as an email address mining operation. They need to live with the spam the same as the rest of us do or they need to pass some strong laws against it and enforce them. What they should not do is penalize their constituents and the organizations who also represent them.

There is something that many of our representatives forget. It happens every few years where hand meets lever in a claustrophobic booth. It’s my vote.

Regardless of all the self serving emails that I will receive, there will come a time when John will want to reach me yet one more time regarding my vote. It may be for his own benefit or for that of a crony but I can tell you for sure that reaching me is going to be real tough from the inside of my email spam list.

It’s Ok though John, “You’re Still The One”. Great song!