Representative Wilson actually responds to her emails!

Almost daily I write emails to my congressional representatives regarding various issues that concern me. I have always believed that these emails probably never were read by those I was addressing them to, but I thought at the very least that a member of the staff would read them and notate that another citizen was interested in, say, ending the war, or impeaching Bush and that if enough people did this, we might have some change.
When I send these emails, I cheat a little. I send them to NM Senators Pete Domeneci and Jeff Bingaman, and to Representative Wilson, in addition to my Oregon Congresspeople. Although I don't live in NM any more- I will continue to vote in that state, because as we saw in the last election, the count I close enough that the Republicans can steal the state without much notice.
Anyway- in response to most of my emails, I get the generic response email, "signed" on behalf of the Congressperson by a member of their staff. It looks like this:

Sincerely,

Pete Domenici

PD: hjk

You can also tell the Congressperson isn't responding personally by the genericness of the generic email. Like one I received from Domenici that said something to the effect of, "Thank you for your interest in The Iraq War. As I am sure you know, I support President Bush's position in continuing The Iraq War". When I had written to him to say that the war was illegal and that we needed to bring the troops home immediately.

Today I got one such response from Heather Wilson's office, or so I thought. I had written her an especially long email about my concern with the Military Commissions Act and how it restricts writ of habeas corpus. Specifically I was writing to ask her to support HR 1189, which would reinstate habeas corpus. I almost deleted the response email without reading it, as it started out with that familiar generic greeting, "Thank you for contacting me regarding the Military Commissions Act". Yuck. But I scrolled down to find that sandwiched between generic paragraphs that seemed to talk at me was the following, in smaller font and formated differently:

"The text of the Military Commissions Act states that its purpose is to establish procedures governing the use of military commissions to try alien unlawful enemy combatants engaged in hostilities against the United States for violations of the law of war and other offenses triable by military commission. While the most controversial provisions in the law refer to alien unlawful enemy combatants, earlier provisions did not exclude United States citizens. Therefore, there is some controversy over whether this law affects the rights of habeas corpus for U.S. citizens. I do not support the removal of habeas corpus rights for U.S. citizens.

"Many legal scholars including those opposed to this Act agree that the Act denies habeas rights only to aliens, and that U.S. citizens detained as "unlawful combatants" would still have habeas rights and could challenge their indefinite detention. While formally opposed to the Act, Human Rights Watch has also concluded that the new law limits the scope of trials by military commissions to non-U.S. citizens including all legal aliens. The current law applies only to resident aliens within the United States as well as other foreign nationals captured here and abroad and that it does not restrict the rights and freedoms and liberties of U.S. citizens anymore than they already have been restricted.

"HR 1189 which would preserve the right of habeas corpus to all residents of the United States was introduced into the House of Representatives on February 16, 2007. That bill was referred to three committees; Judiciary, Armed Services, and Foreign Affairs. I am not a member of any of these committees, but I will closely follow this legislation as it goes through the legislative process."

Wow- Perhaps that was pretty on point and specifically addressed my email. Did some staff member take a moment to actually respond to my email? No, in fact, it was Heather, herself, as I noticed that at the bottom it was signed:

Sincerely,

Heather Wilson

Member of Congress

Wow- I actually think that she read my email and was moved to write a little bit of original text back to me... Although it is very Heather-like text... not promising to do anything except "follow this legislation", I feel validated knowing that my email had much more of an impact that I hoped that it would. And as a result, my daily email writing will continue with the faith in knowing that perhaps once in a while my words will make it to the desk of the decision-makers.

If you want to write your Representative Click Here and do it.

To get your Senators Click Here

I suggest writing also Rep. John Conyers, the head of the House Judiciary, and one of the people who can start impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney. Email the Judiciary HERE
Also email Nancy Pelosi HERE and tell her "Impeachment is NOT OFF THE TABLE"!

Let me know how it goes!