can we have at least one person from each state volunteer to send out a copy of the letter to their elected representatives?
anyone who wants to send to other places is welcome…
let’s not forget facebook connections…
so far i’ve sent to natural news, KGI, and a certain homesteady-type magazine…
other ideas?
Aug 08, 2012 @ 17:58:02
Julie, I’ve been really busy, but read the emails with your posts about the letter and been meaning to give you my 2 cents.
I read the comments on your last post and apparently it hasn’t come up that many states really don’t like the feds messing with their laws. There is quite a bit of federal consumer legislation and of course it would be GREAT to pass a federal law, but I think it’s HIGHLY unlikely.
You don’t get new legislation by sending letters to all legislators, but you have to find ONE legislator to introduce the bill. Don’t waste your time and money mailing to politicians who obviously couldn’t care less.
Look for legislators who might be interested, maybe Kucinich in Ohio. While this is his last term (for now), he KNOWS how the game is played. Find someone with influence who can actually talk to Kucinich and get his honest feedback.
Kucinich just started http://kucinichaction.com/ for his life after Congress and he might have more time for this after this term ends.
Also, I read or heard that President Reagan issued an executive order voiding all laws that prohibited keeping chickens. I just searched the web and found nothing about it, but whether true or not, an executive order is likely the only way to get this legislation for the entire nation any time soon.
So I would ask Obama for an executive order and if he actually did that, he could use it in his campaign. For once, he’d actually sign an executive order that would benefit the people.
I still have many of my and my readers’ letters to legislators on my websites and I know from my own experience how this works, or doesn’t work. There was a time back in the 80s when I got REAL responses addressing the issues I raised with my rep Tom Lantos. It was amazing to get a letter for a congressman addressed to me and he explained his position on various issues and even why there was oil at the beach.
Those days are LONG gone. Between email and faxes, reps are inundated with letters and to my great frustration, I could not get through to Kucinich either when I was working on legislative changes. IF you get a reply from a legislator, it’s a form letter.
Some of my clients did better and I remember one lady who was invited to meet her rep, but it was just a photo op for him, to get his picture in the newspaper. He did NOTHING for her.
If you really want to take this through the regular legislative process, people will have to schedule personal meetings with their reps to see whether they’d be willing to introduce or sponsor such legislation.
I know that I’d be wasting my time in Arizona because I’ve never gotten anything but form emails from my reps and they represent the bankers and cattle ranchers — NOT the people.
Aug 08, 2012 @ 18:30:44
I’ve written a lengthy blog post about all of this…
In spite of the previous comment, I believe that talking to everybody about this and keeping it in the news is the only chance that we have.
If we sit on our hands and do nothing, we are guaranteed to lose.
We need to remember how Middle Eastern governments were toppled by the power of people using FB and twitter, I’m not buying the concern that our representatives are too busy to take an interest.
If they can pass voter-fraud id laws based on stuff that was less likely to happen than being abducted by alien spacecraft, they certainly have time enough to take an interest in an individual freedom issue that is causing a great deal of concern across the country.
Aug 08, 2012 @ 18:46:33
oh. humph- that’s quite discouraging… do you think people may be more amenable at the state level? i just hate the idea that it will still be so piece-meal… that’s been the issue all along, right? that i got zapped in michigan, then someone in tennessee, then in missouri, then in oklahoma- but i guess there really are no quick fixes out there… perhaps if i reset my mental goal to just engaging people with the issue, so at least they can find out where their own states stand on the issue then at least some education could take place. ideally we could have protection, but obviously the world is not ideal… perhaps somoeone out there will have a “wow” idea that i missed…
thank you SO much for your feedback. would you be willing to reach out to kuchinich?
Aug 08, 2012 @ 18:47:58
thank you for this- you keep me hopeful! so are you sending out some letters??? (hopeful me, asking…
)
Aug 08, 2012 @ 19:10:31
I’ll gladly share the letter on the VegetableYarden site. While I agree that flooding representatives will have little true result in the end, we should do it anyways. Sitting idle will have even less of an effect. Can I suggest you take the final draft, and put it, and only it, (no additional commentary, other than maybe a simple discription/ instructions) into it’s own post, with a more appropriate title than “ta-da”? That way, it seems more professional when linking to it. Just my two cents. Also, I read someone else’ suggestion of opening a PO box for returned correspondence. I think it would be a wise choice, as opposed to using people’s personal addresses. My family has been threatened with poisons, and setting fire to our home due to the controversy of our garden, and I’d hate to see anything happen to those supporting our cause. Best always, Karl Tricamo.
Aug 08, 2012 @ 21:19:38
good ideas- all of them. i will trust your media savvy more than my own (i’ve been struck, in fact, by just how naive i was throughout our media blitz…yikes…) thanks for the advice and the link. now to send *h to open a p.o. box… poor long-suffering *h…
Aug 08, 2012 @ 21:51:54
Julie, I would definitely contact Kucinich if I knew how. I did sign up for Kucinich Action (at the bottom of the link I posted).
I didn’t mean to be discouraging, just want to point you in the right direction for success. I’m not a pessimist, but a realist.
Since you’re a big fan of Mike Adams, I’m sure you are aware how corrupt the American government is and that the goal is to have everybody depend on sometimes toxic and at minimum not very nutritious foods at the supermarket – produced by huge corporate farms with Monsanto seeds.
I don’t believe that our government is here to help us. I started a gardening club, showing neighbors how to garden in the desert and even physically helping them get started, building raised beds for people who can’t do it themselves, etc. etc. etc.
I still send letters too, here’s an email I sent today to my homeowners association: http://highdesertdirt.com/blog/2012/08/08/mca-violates-state-law-assessed-illegal-late-fees/
I ignored them for the first 6 years of my membership, but they got on my sh*t list when they didn’t allow me to use the facilities for gardening club meetings because not all of our members belong to this organization.
My deed restrictions don’t allow me to have chickens. I own an acre in the middle of the desert. Even more bizarre, the two neighbors within a quarter of a mile (mostly vacant lots here) are NOT subject to these same restrictions because their lots were never made part of the association.
There are other ridiculous restrictions such as that I’m not allowed to drill a well (we haul our water). Since they claim that the restrictions can’t be changed and they are completely uncooperative, I hope to have the association dissolved, thereby eliminating all restrictions.
I considered creating a webpage about the chickens, but to be effective, my time is spent better with documenting how they continually and deliberately violate the law and the bylaws. I might have the entire board removed and the association dissolved.
THOUSANDS of people would be extremely happy if the MCA was dissolved, but they are NOT willing to do anything. And that’s just how most Americans are. Lazy, afraid of controversy, busy sitting on their asses watching TV all day … Everybody has an excuse for not doing anything and that’s why 80some votes out of about 4,500 elected the latest MCA board.
As I was reading the Arizona law pertaining to planned developments again today, I wondered how a federal food growing law could impact on these developments. I can see constitutional challenges, the right of private property owners to restrict what their neighbors grow in their front yards.
You didn’t mention home owner associations other than that there was none involved in your case. My county could not possibly care less whether I have a well or chickens. How would a new federal law impact on me and the MANY MILLIONS of people subject to association restrictions?
Interestingly, Arizona law specifically states that everybody has the right to fly a flag, even in a planned development. It COULD mention growing food in the front yard, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon because there is little public support for it.
It’s most important that people do a whole lot more than sending letters to elected officials that won’t even be read by them. You’ve done your part by standing up to the city. I know how stressful it is to go to court and few people would NOT back down.
You did even more by starting this blog. You’ve written about others with similar problems and you created a lot more awareness. And now you want to do even more (despite your health problems) and I appreciate that.
Julie, if there were more people like you, this would be a much better planet.
Keep up the great work!
Christine
Aug 08, 2012 @ 22:09:59
I will send it around Michigan! Do you have a email copy. You can send me? See you soon
I got my reply in the mail can’t wait to see you!
Aug 09, 2012 @ 23:36:54
i can cut and paste it in an email to you- but i’m assuming you could do it from here as well… can’t wait to see you too!
Aug 09, 2012 @ 23:37:20
thank you for that!