So, why don’t you take action?

I don’t know how.

This is usually a cop out – you had 12 years of free education like all the rest of us – so what is it really that you don’t know how to do? Write? No one’s asking for an essay and since you got past fourth grade, you do know how to write a paragraph. Write one of those – and if there’s still more you think is important to say, write another. Turn on spellcheck and correct the mistakes. Reread it and make sure it makes sense (read it aloud if you’re not sure – if it doesn’t make sense when you hear it, it’s not making sense in the text, either). Copy, paste and hit send.

I don’t know who.

If it’s an issue, all of your representatives are fair game – and it’s perfectly okay to write one letter and send it to all of them (change the stuff like names, titles and which seat they hold).

If it’s a specific bill, just go to the house (House or Senate – yeah, it’s confusing) website and type in what you do know in the search bar. That will get you to the formal name of the bill (e.g. HR 123 or S 456). If it’s in one but not the other, just write the representative in that house. Otherwise, write all three (2 senators – yes, I know, it’s confusing. So’s American Idol and you know who won the last four years in a row, don’t you?).

If it’s an executive initiative (something the president is trying to get done) write the president. You may want to write your House Representative as well since most bills start off in the House of Representatives.

No, I really don’t know how.

Don’t know – or afraid of it? Not sure how to make contact? Afraid of contacting someone that important? Usually, when we convince ourselves we can’t it’s really that we aren’t confident enough to figure it out. Writing a letter is no more difficult than writing a comment – and you do that every day.

But you don’t have to start with the formal, paper letter. You found that guy you knew in high school on social media – you can find your congressman the same way. Start there – follow them on their official page and comment. This isn’t the most effective method – but it for dang sure works.

Maybe that whole ‘writing’ thing is your point of paralysis – so you aren’t a hermit so you must be able to use the phone, right? Call the official line – the number is on the branch website – or on the representative’s personal site. the odds that you will speak directly to the representative are slim – so don’t worry about talking to someone important. You’ll be talking to a staffer – and you help pay that person’s salary, If you can call a customer service line, you can do this.

I don’t think it’ll do any good.

Now we’re getting somewhere – because most of the time this is the real reason people never contact their representatives. You bothered to go vote – far more people will do that than ever call or write. If voting makes a difference – and it does (just not nearly as fast as we’d like) then writing or calling are guaranteed to have a greater effect. that’s simply because you are now part of a much smaller school of fish – but it’s a school that politician’s know often contains sharks.

What does that mean? Upset people contact their representatives – but for every one of those, there’s at least a dozen more that aren’t contacting their representatives but are talking to their friends and families, complaining on social media, and are mad enough to remember this come the next election. The more difficult a particular method of contact is, the more people this one caller or commenter is likely to represent. A thousand people mad enough to talk to other people can and do influence elections – and every politician knows it.

It didn’t do any good last time.

The first time you let go of the coffee table, you fell flat on your little diapered backside. You didn’t get that one promotion. You failed algebra. Failure happens.

But it only remains a failure if you never grab hold of that coffee table and haul yourself up again. If you don’t go back in to the boss’s office well prepared to argue for a promotion. If you just close that textbook and give up.

But you can walk, you eventually got that promotion – or a better job, and you made it through algebra (although there are flashbacks…) – seriously, if it’s important enough to matter, it’s important enough to fight for.

Of course you won’t get what you want every time – you aren’t the only constituent. But the truth is, more often than not, if you keep at it, you will get the response you want. Because a LOT of people think that they can’t make a difference so they never try – and many times they are on the other side of the issue. Their inaction magnifies your action – so keep it up.

Look, I stink with computers.

You can use a phone book – look in the blue pages and call the office number and they will give you the physical address or the email address or any other contact information you need. Or just talk to the nice staffer – rude staffers don’t answer the phone – for the same reason no sane business has a rude receptionist.

It’s our job to supervise our government. Get to work!