USARK says mail is better than email

[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