USARK says mail is better than email

[Lucas339]

if you haven't got the new eamil from usark here it is:

"Reptile Nation,

I know that we are facing dangerous and confusing times for the Reptile Community. Our end is upon us if we don't take decisive action to save ourselves. We have the power to decide our own future if we will only wake up and do what needs to be done!!

Thank you to those of you who have taken it upon yourself to take action. I know it has been frustrating. Congress is not set up to be reached by email. We have experienced broken links, constituent filters, blocks and deletions. But our opponents at HSUS lobbying for the bill have faced the same setbacks; although they have shown up in much larger numbers. As for the groups opposing the bill, USARK has generated the most contacts according to congressional staffers. But we must do much better or we will fail.

I just returned from a trip to Capitol Hill. Our lobbyist Tom Wolfe set up meetings with both sides of the Congressional Subcommittee considering HR669. We also did drop in visits to subcommittee member offices to make our case. Support was split down party lines. The Republicans support us and the Democrats oppose us. The Democrat side can win with a straight party line vote. The good news is that since meeting with USARK the Ranking Republican Rep Harry Brown, SC contacted me and has made this bill a priority. He has given us precise instructions on how to most effectively contact the subcommittee.

The Reptile Community must wake up or all will be lost. This is a huge mailing list. Yet only a few are taking action to contact the subcommittee. If everyone on this list did their part we would avalanche the subcommittee and make our point. We could kill HR669. We need to get off our lazy asses and start writing and calling the subcommittee members. The Hearing is on the 23rd of this month. That is all the time we have to save ourselves from being completely destroyed... and make no mistake, if HR669 passes the Reptile Community will be decimated overnight.

Rep Brown's office suggests we focus on direct contact with subcommittee members. That means written letters followed up by phone calls. They are telling us that email and fax are the least effective way to contact members... they get lost and deleted. We need to call and write. They are also saying to send the letters directly to our lobbyist and have him deliver them in mass to the subcommittee members. If you are focusing on other activities STOP until after you complete this important task. Start calling and writing. The Key is IN MASS!!! It has greater impact that way. The time is now to fight for your life. We must convince several Democrats to oppose HR669 to prevail.

This is what we need to do:

Write a letter to each member of the subcommittee. Click this link http://www.usark.org/uploads/hr669sample.pdf for the sample letter from our archive and names and phone numbers for committee members.
Label each envelope w/ the committee members name and your name and return address.
Put all these letters in a large manila envelope and send to: Tom Wolfe, 6246 Lee Hwy, Arlington, VA 22205
Call each member of the subcommittee- you will be speaking with staff. Let them know you Oppose HR669. Be civil, but tell them how this will effect you and your family.
Check where members are from. If any of the members are your district representatives, or are from your state, make sure they know you are their constituent.
If we are not annihilated by HR669 be prepared to do this over and over again. From now on political action will be needed regularly to maintain our rights. If you have not joined USARK please click the link on the bottom of the page and protect your rights. Please post this letter on every forum and social networking site you can think of.

Sincerely,

Andrew Wyatt

President USARK"

this is easy if you have a computer at your house and if you are reading this, you probably do. you can set you computer up to print on envelopes so you don't even have to write anything. there is a form letter on usark.org.....everthing has been done for you, you just have to print and ship!!!

[Adam_Wysocki]

The best thing is to do SOMETHING ... ANYTHING ... if you want to send letters, send them! ... If you want to do emails, go for it! ... If you want to make phone calls, AWESOME!

Too many people are just ignoring this issue.

The only bad thing is doing nothing!

Support USARK, support PIJAC, support any effort to put an end to HR 669!

-adam

[nixer]

The best thing is to do SOMETHING ... ANYTHING ... if you want to send letters, send them! ... If you want to do emails, go for it! ... If you want to make phone calls, AWESOME!

Too many people are just ignoring this issue.

The only bad thing is doing nothing!

Support USARK, support PIJAC, support any effort to put an end to HR 669!

-adam

the first message i feel that something is needed to be edited adam

Support USARK, support PIJAC, support ALL efforts to put an end to HR 669!

[Shadera]

Thank you for the dedication to this cause. I've sent emails and made some phone calls, but am going to do this as well.

[The_Boaphile]

USARK has hired a representative in Washington DC. He will be hand delivering all the letters that are forwarded on to him before the scheduled April 23rd committee meeting. More on this soon.

He will hand deliever any letters sent to him. You need not be a supporter of USARK. We will rent a truck if we have to deliver the letters. Do the nohr669.com thing! Email your representative! Send your letter to our representative Tom Wolfe! Just do it do it do it!

Here is his address to have your letters hand delivered!

Tom Wolfe
6246 Lee Hwy
Arlington, VA 22205

[Corvid]

Ok, So I've got all 22 of my letters in their envelopes and in the big envelope to send to Tom Wolfe, but have some questions...
Who is Tom Wolfe, and why I am I sending HIM all of my letters? I'm sure I could find this answer if I dug around, but there is SO much on the bill...

My second question is: If I send them my letters (with return address like it said) then are they going to start mailing me stuff? What about if in the unlikely event that this Bill DOES pass, now they know who I am and where I live. I'm afraid of some sort of database I will be kept in. I know it's unlikely, I know I'm paranoid...But if I wasn't I wouldn't bother sending MY letters....

[Adam_Wysocki]

Ok, So I've got all 22 of my letters in their envelopes and in the big envelope to send to Tom Wolfe, but have some questions...
Who is Tom Wolfe, and why I am I sending HIM all of my letters? I'm sure I could find this answer if I dug around, but there is SO much on the bill...

Tom Wolfe is a professional lobbyist with over a decade of experience working on the Hill that has been hired by USARK to help represent our interests in Washington. Normally, it is very difficult to send correspondence to House members that are not from your Congressional District. Representatives really only want to hear from their direct constituents. But, since the hearing is coming up on the 23rd of April, one of the extremely important things that we can do is to contact the members of the subcommittee that are holding the hearing. These 23 men and women may or may not be your Representatives and would probably not even look at an email, letter, or fax from you. Also, it generally takes a piece of physical mail 6-8 weeks to pass through the chemical and biological screening processes in the Congressional Post Office which doesn't give us enough time to get letters there by the 23rd. Tom Wolfe (and USARK) have generously offered to receive all of our letters themselves and personally hand deliver them to each of the offices of all 23 members of the Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans & Wildlife that will be holding the hearing.

One important thing that I'd like to point out is that since you're required to put your return address in the top left corner of the envelopes that each letter is in, some of the Representatives might look at the zip code and if you're not in the district that they Represent not even open the letter. So it's important to put "NO H.R. 669" somewhere on the envelope so that they will get the message even if they choose to not read the letter. I'm putting a small florescent pink label on each of my envelopes that says "NO HR 669" in a dark, bold font.

My second question is: If I send them my letters (with return address like it said) then are they going to start mailing me stuff? What about if in the unlikely event that this Bill DOES pass, now they know who I am and where I live. I'm afraid of some sort of database I will be kept in. I know it's unlikely, I know I'm paranoid...But if I wasn't I wouldn't bother sending MY letters....

You're perfectly safe. The reality is that the majority of the letter will most likely be shredded immediately after being opened if they're even opened at all. The symbolism of the lobbyist for USARK delivering huge stacks of letters to each subcommittee members office is really way more important than what is in the actual letters themselves (unless of course your direct Representative in Congress is on the subcommittee). I almost wish that some one would follow Mr. Wolfe with a video camera so that we could see the look on the staffers faces when he drops piles of letters from all of us onto their desks!!! If they wanted to find you, they wouldn't need this letter. They could easily track you via websites like this one, credit card purchases of pet supplies, and a ton of other "electronic footprints" that you've been leaving in databases since you started keeping snakes. On top of that, all of the big breeders have recently begun sending their addresses and collection information to US Fish and Wildlife for the new CITES program, so I'm pretty sure they'd start there first. You're perfectly safe, so SEND THOSE LETTERS!

I'll be posting a tutorial tonight on www.nohr669.com for anyone interested in seeing how the whole letter thing is done step my step. Give me a little bit to get everything uploaded.

Hope this helps.

-adam

[DutchHerp]

Adam..

YOU ROCK

I sincerely hope everyone agrees with me.

[Shadera]

Got my letters all nice and ready to go. The bright "NO HR 669" written on them so that even if they're not opened the message is still gotten is a wonderful idea.

I also hung some fliers tonight and taped two in each of our cars (in a non obstructive place, of course) so that no matter where we are, people will see them. Tomorrow we're headed to vet's offices and rescues/shelters to hang fliers there as well.

[Adam_Wysocki]

Got my letters all nice and ready to go. The bright "NO HR 669" written on them so that even if they're not opened the message is still gotten is a wonderful idea.

I also hung some fliers tonight and taped two in each of our cars (in a non obstructive place, of course) so that no matter where we are, people will see them. Tomorrow we're headed to vet's offices and rescues/shelters to hang fliers there as well.

Excellent! Kelly is actually making posters to put in our car windows tomorrow!

I'm so proud of our entire pet community, and especially proud of all of my friends at Bp.Net that are stepping up and doing their part in extraordinary ways!

-adam