|
|
 |
| Last Updated: Jan 20th, 2009 - 19:56:46
Government Belongs to Us
By James P. Gray
Dec 14, 2008, 16:14 PST
|
|
In October 2007, I wrote a column about the California Highway Patrol's 11-99 Foundation. When a person donated a minimum of $5,000, he or she was given a license plate frame and a membership card that (coincidentally) could be placed next to that person's driver's license.
Of course, the strong implication was that the donor would receive favorable treatment from the CHP out on the state's highways. And I cited in the column some occasions on which that favorable treatment had actually been given.
I sent a copy of the column to then-CHP Commissioner Mike Brown, along with a handwritten letter, requesting him to investigate the situation, and possibly to discontinue this practice. The reason for that request, of course, was that our system of justice in traffic court and everywhere else should be entirely free from even the appearance of any favoritism.
I received no response to my letter. So a few months later in another column I reported that I had not received a response from Brown, and then sent him a second letter, which again was met only by silence.
But about four months thereafter I learned that the CHP had a new commissioner named Joe Farrow, so I sent him a letter, along with an explanation of my request and a copy of the previous columns. Within three weeks, I received a telephone call from his secretary inviting me to have lunch with the new commissioner.
At that lunch, Farrow told me he had taken action in two ways.
First, he issued a strong statement to his troops that they were not to be influenced by 11-99 Foundation membership in exercising their sound discretion about whether to issue traffic citations or anything else.
Second, he had met with the officials of the 11-99 Foundation and was successful in obtaining their promise to cease the distribution of the license plate frames and identification cards by this coming January. In addition, he had also instigated a movement to recall the license plate frames and ID cards that have already been issued.
This is government at its best, and that was the laudatory message I gave to Farrow. Government had been responsive, responsible, and professional, and had acted with integrity.
Why am I writing about this experience? Because it demonstrates that we can and do have an influence in our government — at all levels. In fact, if we are persistent, there is little that we cannot accomplish, at least in the long run.
With government, like many other situations in life, familiarity does not breed contempt; it breeds access. Another way of saying this is that government is a "contact sport." So all of us should make advocacy a regular part of our everyday lives. Our form of government depends on it.
Many elected officials have told me that when they receive individually written letters, they attach great significance and weight to them. In fact, they actually have a formula that for every personalized letter they receive, they feel that at least 35 other people in their district probably have the same views. So don't be bashful about writing those letters.
Of course, your letters will have a great deal more chance of influencing elected officials if you can actually vote for those officials. This means that a letter you send to your own member of Congress will be much more likely to have influence than a letter to a member outside of your district.
But to take this action a step further, getting a group of 10 to 15 or more voters in your elected official's district who are united and vocal about a certain issue would increase the odds that the person would not only respond to you but even actually meet with you on the subject at a place of your choosing.
Relationships are power. Whatever your issues are you can and should turn your passions into that power. Why? Because if we do not have government at its best, we only have ourselves to blame.
© Copyright 2008 by Classbrain.com
Top of Page
|
| Search |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Columns - Political
Latest Headlines
|
|
Email this article
Printer friendly page