time to write a lettter?!

[Kurt Cockrum]

In-Reply-To: <199903091628.IAA05811 at scn.org>

Amy Borgstrom said (via Doug Schuler):
>Thanks for the heads up Laura! I hope lots of people write that letter and 
>make that call. Just a hint--I've heard that *handwritten* notes actually 
>have more impact with congressional types than word processed, or 
>especially e-mail. So you might want to go with that approach...

I've heard pencil works real well, because it adds a genuine-seeming
folksy touch, fooling the recipient into thinking we are like the rest
of the proles they presumably get letters from.  But don't use #3 or #4,
use #1 or 2.

           \   e-mail  |  by hand, typewriter
             +-------------------------------
Yesterday    |   IN    |         OUT
-------------+-------------------------------
Today        |   OUT   |         IN

Sigh.  What's wrong with this picture?

Why can't the stupid congresscritters just *read*
the damn letters without all these silly arms-race-style games?  We were
all sold on how wonderful e-mail was as a communication medium.  Hell,
we helped sell it!  What the bleeping good is e-mail if you can't use it
to communicate important ideas to the major players??  For crying out loud,
that's what it's FOR!!!

It's a really sad state of affairs when we have to dumb ourselves down
temporarily (?) to have a word with the people we presumably helped to
elect, just because this apparently is part of the millenial zeitgeist.
Next you'll be telling us not to use big words.

>Re: $65 million in federal budget for community tech centers

Hand-written letters advocating community tech centers??
What kind of wierd retro-juxtaposition is this?  The mind boggles.

Are these the places where people are going to learn how to get in touch
with their congresspeople?  Some kind of place where literacy, either
real or computer-mediated, is taught?  Why not cut right to the chase and
just start up community hand-writing centers?  That would put that $65M
to pretty appropriate use, it seems to me.  Recapture the romance of
the Palmer Method!
[ chortle; in background, clattering, clunky sound of ontogeny
recapitulating phylogeny ]

Actually, if stylus-mediated I/O develops a la the Palm Pilot, with
pressure and x/y tilt-sensing, that might actually happen!
Handwriting styles could be just like fonts for the fingers. :)
--kurt
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