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Proposed Letters to Congress and Media 
Emails don't work so well--you need to write directly to the person in charge in a typed snail-mailed letter signed in blue or red so they know it isn't a form letter (which so many emails are). For the same reason, we urge you to make your own personal changes to the letters below, though you can use most of it. Most important: let the elected official know that you are in their election district, or the media person know that you listen to their programs. Make any changes you wish that more accurately express your own perspective and desires. But be clear and challenging--when it comes to attention from the media or politicians, nice guys always finish last and the squeaky wheel gets all the attention.
SAMPLE LETTERS TO ELECTED OFFICIALS and MEDIA PEOPLE
(This one is written to the Democratic Party elected officials, so please make appropriate changes if you are writing to an elected member of the Greens, the Republicans or any other party with which you are affiliated).
Dear Congress Person or Senator X:
I would like to meet with you to discuss the way Congress has been dealing with the issues facing our country. I have read through your website, and I know you share many of my views about what the country needs. So, in fact, do many of the other members of Congress. And yet, when they get together, there is a striking failure to pursue the policies that are needed.
I’ve noticed, in particular, that the liberals and progressives in Congress tend to compromise on their positions, while the Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans do not. As a result, the political discourse continues to move further and further toward the Right. Whether the issue is health care, funding the military budget, taxing the rich, restraining corporate power or protecting human rights, the dynamic is always the same—and this same dynamic appears to be shaping the Obama administration as well.
The answer typically given is that our liberals and progressives are just being “realistic.” But of course, the opposite is the case. By being willing to compromise over and over again, they only convey to the country that a. they have no backbone and b. that their positions don’t need to be taken seriously, because they will always capitulate to their right while the right will rarely capitulate to their left.
So I want to meet with YOU (not your interns or administrative assistants) to discuss this issue with you. I know that the media gives attention to those angry types on the right who have formed a Tea Party movement—do ordinary citizens like me have to form a liberal/progressive movement that shows this kind of anger to get your attention? Actually, I am part of a Network of Spiritual Progressives (check it out at www.spiritualprogressives.org) that is an impressive movement—but its approach is through a spirit of generosity and kindness. Is this a mistake—will we only get attention if we are angry and disruptive the way folks on the right have been since Obama took office. I hope not, because I believe in civil discourse and mutual respect. That’s why I want to meet with you to discuss these issues:
a. The Global Marshall Plan proposed by the Network of Spiritual Progressives and now introduced as HRes 1016
b. Proposed Amendments to the Constitution to restrain corporate power, particularly the Environmental and Ethical Responsibility Amendment
c. Medicare for All—because after the current round of “reform,” prices will still be rising astronomically, and we need a more serious reform
d. How Congress and Obama might develop a back bone by articulating a coherent ideology.
When can I meet with you?
Sincerely,
Name
Address Email Phone
(This one is written to the Democratic Party elected officials, so please make appropriate changes if you are writing to an elected member of the Greens, the Republicans or any other party with which you are affiliated).
Dear City Counsel Member or Bd. Of Supervisors Member X or State Legislator Y:
I would like to meet with you to ask for your support in helping to change the political discourse in this country, and to pass resolutions of support for a number of items that I believe will contribute to that effort.
I have read through your website, and I know you share many of my views about what the country needs. So, in fact, do many of the other members of the [city council, Board of Supes, State Legislature]. And yet, I believe that when they get together, they fail to produce a public discourse that can change the political dialogue in our community.
In this respect, they are much like our Congress. I’ve noticed, in particular, that the liberals and progressives in Congress tend to compromise on their positions, while the Blue Dog Democrats and Republicans do not. As a result, the political discourse continues to move further and further toward the Right. Whether the issue is health care, funding the military budget, taxing the rich, restraining corporate power or protecting human rights, the dynamic is always the same—and this same dynamic appears to be shaping the Obama administration as well.
The answer typically given is that our liberals and progressives are just being “realistic.” But of course, the opposite is the case. By being willing to compromise over and over again, they only convey to the country that a. they have no backbone and b. that their positions don’t need to be taken seriously, because they will always capitulate to their right while the right will rarely capitulate to their left.
A similar phenomenon occurs on the local level, this time dressed in the excuse that these larger national issues are not local issues and hence out of your purview. But of course, that argument is seen through even by my more conservative neighbors—everyone is beginning to recognize that when trillions are given to the banks and insurance companies and health care profiteers and the military, there is little left to help states and localities deal with the impact of high unemployment and the continuing (though in the media largely invisible) impact of the great recession we are still in. So you are faced with cutting essential services or refusing adequate pay to government employees and teachers. Yet this is not a result of “the objective situation,” but of the way our government chooses to respond to the economic meltdown and its partial reconstruction.
In this situation, I’m turning to you to ask you to provide leadership by helping us present a different kind of discourse in the country. I want to meet with you to discuss these issues —in part, but not only, to ask you to play role in introducing a resolution of support for the items below from our (city council, board of supervisors, state legislature, and the state Democratic/Republican/Green or whatever Party):
a. The Global Marshall Plan proposed by the Network of Spiritual Progressives and now introduced as HRes 1016 by Congressman Keith Ellison
b. Proposed Amendments to the Constitution to restrain corporate power, particularly the Environmental and Ethical Responsibility Amendment
c. Medicare for All—because after the current round of “reform,” prices will still be rising astronomically, and we need a more serious reform
d. How Congress and Obama and our local elected representatives and the Democratic Party might develop a back bone by articulating a coherent ideology.
I’d like to meet with YOU, not just as aide or intern, to discuss these issues. Too often I hear elected officials pleading modesty: “how can I, here is this one local job, change the national discourse?” Well, the answer, you can start here and join with others to do so all around the country. I’ve done that—I’m working with the Network of Spiritual Progressives (check us out at www.spiritualprogressives.org and please read our Global Marshall Plan and our Spiritual Covenant with America to give you an idea of what we’d like you to advocate). I invite you, after reading that, to consider joining, or aligning yourself with our project. If you are interested, our national chairs, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Cornel West, and Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister would be delighted to have you become a member and to come to our national conference in D.C. June 11-14. But I know that’s a long shot, so in the meantime, I want to meet with you as soon as you are available.
When can I meet with you?
Sincerely,
Name
Address Email
LETTER TO MEDIA EDITOR of Print Media or Assignment Desk Editor for Radio/TV news
Dear (Editor X):
I know the media often gets attacked from every which angle, so I want to start by telling you that in general I really appreciate the work of (name their media institution) and am so glad that you are able to help provide us with useful information. I appreciate your contribution to a democratic society, and know that you are under conflicting pressures and doing the best you can in that circumstance.
Yet I am writing to ask that you give greater representation to a voice that I rarely hear quoted or even mentioned in passing in (name their media institution): the voice of spiritual progressives. While the media often gives laudatory or fearful accounts of the growth of the Tea Party movement, it has rarely given any coverage at all to as important a movement in the liberal and progressive world: the development of a spiritual Left which is often as critical of traditional liberalism as the Tea Party people are of traditional conservatism.
This was particular striking to me both when the Network of Spiritual Progressives was founded in 2005 with a conference in the Bay Area of some 1,400 people and in Washington, D.C. in 2006. I read nothing about that in the media nor heard of coverage on television or radio. Similarly, a conference in SF on Feb 15, 2010 attended by close to six hundred people who were upset at the failures of the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress got no coverage by you, yet smaller meetings by Tea Party people are given great prominence. I don’t attribute this difference to a political bias, but rather to a herd mentality which often follows a few key opinion shapers in the national media in determining “what is news” and what doesn’t deserve coverage.
I’m writing to request a meeting with you to discuss this issue in general, and to present to you some very specific proposals that are part of the agenda of the Network of Spiritual Progressives. I know that in your business it is typical to say, “Lets wait till a specific event happens and then lets consider covering that.” But part of my reason for writing is that I want you to be seeking out the perspectives of spiritual progressives and to become more familiar with our approach. So while I can refer you to our website at www.spiritualprogressives.org or recommend that you speak to our national chair people (Rabbi Michael Lerner at 510 644 1200 RabbiLerner@Tikkun.org, Cornel West at Princeton University, or Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister), I want a personal meeting with you to also present some of the current foci of our work:
a. The Global Marshall Plan proposed by the Network of Spiritual Progressives and now introduced as HRes 1016 by Congressman Keith Ellison
b. Proposed Amendments to the Constitution to restrain corporate power, particularly the Environmental and Ethical Responsibility Amendment
c. Medicare for All—because after the current round of “reform,” prices will still be rising astronomically, and we need a more serious reform
d. How Congress and Obama and our local elected representatives and the Democratic Party might develop a back bone by articulating a coherent ideology.
Of course, I realize that many of the more hardboiled media people will immediately respond by saying that these ideas are all “unrealistic.” That, of course, was how the media has always treated new movements, including the civil rights movement, the women’s movement and the LGBT movements, to name just a few. I want to meet with you to help you broaden your thinking on what should or should not be considered “realistic” and hence “newsworthy” when it comes to American and global politics and environmental policies.
Please let me know when we can meet. In preparation for that meeting, it would be wonderful if you would go to the website of the Network of Spiritual Progressives at www.spiritualprogressives.org and read the Spiritual Covenant with America, the Global Marshall Plan, and the core vision of our community.
Warm regards,
Name Address Email Phone
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