Contact Your Representatives

One of the most important tools for being an active participant in a representative government is knowing who to talk to.   Don’t let your representatives take your opinions for granted… TELL THEM WHAT YOU REALLY THINK!  The link at right will take you to contact info for our Federal Representatives, along with some State reps in Oregon and Washington.  To make the most of your contact, you may want to read this article on tips for contacting your representative in person, by letter, phone, or email, or this article on how to write the most effective political letters.

Now that you know who to talk to, it’s important to know what you’re talking about.  The links below are to sites that do more than just list the politicians and contact numbers.  They allow you to track the progress of individual bills through the legislature, review coalitions pressing for or against the bills, and much more.

Of course, government is much more than the political theater we see played out across the media every day.  There have always been people behind the scenes pulling the strings of our government (and basically every other government ever  instituted on the planet).  We don’t mean some tinfoil-hat-conspiracy kind of thing, but that the people with money and power aren’t always the people in the elected seats.  TheyRule.net is a fascinating website that shows you the connections between people, government, and business that, for better or worse, make our government what it is today.