Opinions - Does writing a letter to your political representatives do any good?

[thegoodfight]

How many of you have ever wanted to write a letter to your Congressman, Senator, Local gov official, or even a company. Well I know that I have been so pissed about something every now and then that I actually do write a letter to the appropriate representative.

I have always wondered if these actually do any good. I'm guessing that it might be possible to open a politician's eyes to another view point, but that may be wishful thinking.

Anyway, here are my questions on other members points of view on "writing letters"; I would have made a poll, but there wasn't an option on my posting.?.


-Have you ever written a letter to a government official, stating concern or interest in a specific topic?
-Did you get a response from that letter? Was the response a "form letter" or a standardized response?
-Would you write more letters if you had pre-written form letters that you could modify to fit your needs?



I was looking for sites that had pre-written letters that could be used as-is or as a guideline for formating. I figured this would be helpful for may people who did not want to spend the time writing a letter "from scratch" or who felt uncomfortable doing so.



I know that I would probably send more letters if I knew that: they would be read; possibly influence decisions in ANY way; opened anyones mind to another point of view.

If a site were available the contained the following would one use it?
-Letters voicing concern on issues such as: drug-reform, education concerns, pro life/choice, corperate fraud, etc. there are an endless number of issues to discuss. These would be pre-written form letters that the user could modify, to fit their viewpoint, if they wish. If they agree with the letter, it could be submitted as is..
-Listings of public officials,ofice term, election dates, addresses, phone #
-the public official's voting record
-current issues being discussed
-record of past letters submitted to office/official (brief summary of letter)
-Officials current stance on issues.
-Discussion forum
***More services to be added as they come up***



Would you use something like this?