Intro Post and Guidelines
52letters is our attempt to write at least one letter (or make one call) to our elected officials a week for a year. We're contacting our representatives at every level: city officials, state legislatures, national congress, and the president. These letters are just the beginning--our objective is to make our voices heard and to revitalize participatory democracy and civic engagement.
I will be hosting letter-writing parties at my house once a week, for those who live in the Salt Lake City area. If the group starts getting bigger, I encourage people to start hosting their own letter-writing groups in their own neighborhoods.
Some basic rules and guidelines for this community:
1) Post your own letters! Or post links to what you want to write about. Part of the fun of this is seeing what other people care about and being inspired by each other's words.
2) Please be respectful, both in your letters and especially in your interactions with other community members. Discussion is always encouraged and dissent is fine, but try to keep from attacking people for what they choose to speak out about.
3) However, I started this project with left-wing issues in mind, and most of the people involved will likely be progressive. I don't want to exclude anyone, but keep in mind that if you're posting a letter that you know runs counter to the political viewpoints of most of the community, you are opening yourself up to criticism.
4) Like I said above, part of this project is the option to get people together offline and write letters with other people from your community. It's cool to post an announcement here if you're hosting a letter-writing party, but because this is the internet, please don't post the address publicly if you're hosting it at your own home.
5) I started this project with the idea of chiefly targeting American politicians, as that is where I live, but it's open to anyone from any country that wants to be more involved with their own elected officials.
For Americans: You can contact your representative over here, you can contact your senators over here, and you can contact the president over here.
I will be hosting letter-writing parties at my house once a week, for those who live in the Salt Lake City area. If the group starts getting bigger, I encourage people to start hosting their own letter-writing groups in their own neighborhoods.
Some basic rules and guidelines for this community:
1) Post your own letters! Or post links to what you want to write about. Part of the fun of this is seeing what other people care about and being inspired by each other's words.
2) Please be respectful, both in your letters and especially in your interactions with other community members. Discussion is always encouraged and dissent is fine, but try to keep from attacking people for what they choose to speak out about.
3) However, I started this project with left-wing issues in mind, and most of the people involved will likely be progressive. I don't want to exclude anyone, but keep in mind that if you're posting a letter that you know runs counter to the political viewpoints of most of the community, you are opening yourself up to criticism.
4) Like I said above, part of this project is the option to get people together offline and write letters with other people from your community. It's cool to post an announcement here if you're hosting a letter-writing party, but because this is the internet, please don't post the address publicly if you're hosting it at your own home.
5) I started this project with the idea of chiefly targeting American politicians, as that is where I live, but it's open to anyone from any country that wants to be more involved with their own elected officials.
For Americans: You can contact your representative over here, you can contact your senators over here, and you can contact the president over here.