Democracy in Action

In the July issue of AMT, we published an article by Bill O'Brien titled Open Letter: AMT Day Recognition. If you haven't read it yet, I encourage you to click on the link above to read it now. O'Brien discusses how to contact your U.S. Congressmen and Senators to get them to support the National AMT Day resolution being introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. I am no stranger to contacting my representatives. A few years back, I asked our State representative David Ward to sponsor a bill proclaiming May 24 of each year as AMT Day in Wisconsin. He agreed, and on June 10, 2003, a joint resolution was passed proclaiming May 24 each year as AMT Day in Wisconsin. The process was fairly easy. But Representative Ward wouldn't have acted on his own. It took me asking him to introduce the resolution to get it done. It's time to ask our U.S. Senators and Congressmen to support the National AMT Day resolution. Ken MacTiernan did his part -- he flew to D.C. and met with his Congressman, the Honorable Robert Filner and asked him to introduce a resolution proclaiming May 24 as National AMT Day. Congressman Filner agreed, and did his part by introducing the resolution. It's time for us to do our part and garner support and co-sponsors for Congressman Filner's resolution to get this legislation pushed forward. I did my part earlier today. It was quite easy. I logged on to www.house.gov. I entered my Zip Code +4 and was directed to my U.S. Congresswoman -- the Honorable Tammy Baldwin. There was a form on her website to submit a letter, and I submitted a short letter to her using some of Bill O'Brien's verbiage from his article and adding some of my own. Next, I went to www.senate.gov. I clicked on "WI" on the drop-down menu at the top of the page to find my two Senators. I went to each of their websites and wrote each one a short letter based on the letter I had already submitted to Congresswoman Baldwin. The whole process took less than 20 minutes. So, are you ready do your part and invest 20 minutes of your time to help make the National AMT Day resolution a reality? I can't do it by myself. A dozen of us can't do it by ourselves. It will take all of us to do our part. We need to flood the Senate and House with tens of thousands of letters! The wrench is in your hands now! Don't let this opportunity pass us by. Don't let this die on the vine because you assume someone else will write his or her letters. Thanks for reading! Joe Escobar