From: ronda@ais.org (Ronda Hauben)
Newsgroups: alt.amateur-comp
Subject: Re: Internet Connection to Congress
Date: 21 Jan 1993 20:23:17 GMT
Organization: UMCC
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: umcc.ais.org
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]




Robert Kastigar (urkastig@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu) wrote:
: I sent a letter to the address given in Ronda's article, and received
: the following response:
: 
: 
: From DALBISTO@HR.house.gov  Ukn Jan 12 14:20:22 1993
: Received: from oxygen.house.gov (ozone.house.gov) by uxa.ecn.bgu.edu with SMTP id AA24623

I wondered why oxygen.house.gov is followed by (ozone.house.gov)?

in another post oxygen is indicated as the mailhost - o
hy then ozone?

what is ozone?

: Received: from home.house.gov by oxygen.house.gov 
: (AIX 3.2/UCB 5.64/3.2.083191-)
:           id AA16425; Tue, 12 Jan 1993 15:17:55 -0500
: Received: from HR.HOUSE.GOV (bismuth.house.gov) by nitrogen (4.1/SMI-4.1)


again hr.house.gov and then (bismuth.gouse.gov) - 
why one address and then another in paranthesis?

: 	id AA18281; Tue, 12 Jan 93 15:15:53 EST
: Received: by HR.HOUSE.GOV
:         (Soft*Switch Central V4L380P4) id 033418150093012FMSTEST;
:         12 Jan 1993 15:22:15 EST
: Message-Id: <MSTEST.DALBISTO.033418150093012FMSTEST@HOUSE.GOV>
: Date: 12 Jan 1993 15:22:15 EST
: From: "AlbistonD" <DALBISTO@HR.house.gov>
: Subject: Answer to Representative Address
: To: urkastig@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu
: Comment: MEMO
: Status: RO
: X-Status: 
: 
: Hi,
: 
: I received your inquiry about Congressman Rostenkowski and at this time
: he does not have an email address.  The plan is to provide each member
: office with such an address but that has not been done yet.
: We do hope to provide this capability in the early Spring timeframe.
: 
: We have received many inquiries regarding this type of access in the
: past few days and I am curious to know if it has been published
: somewhere that this access is now available.  Could you let me know if
: this is the case?
: 
: 
: Thanks,
: Doreen Albiston (dalbisto@hr.house.gov)
: US House of Representatives
: ---------------------------------------------------------------

If one wanted to write to their congressman - for example, 
my local congressman now is John Conyers, Jr.

What would the address be likely to be?

I just talked with Raymond Plowden his chief of staff in his
Detroit office(of Congressman Conyers) I was told that he didn't
know if they wanted to have that type of access for constituents


That email access was for internal usage.

Also, when I tried to suggest that there might be a value
to Congressman Conyers to hear his constituents views
and experiences with the laws the Congressman drafts and/or
votes on - I was told that maybe "we"(i.e, the Congressman
and his staff) don't need "your" (i.e. constituents) data.

Basically the Chief of Staff gave me to understand that 
the Congressman has his positions on questions and issues
and laws and that they will tell me THE CONGRESSMAN'S
position - that their office sees no need to hear 
other views from constituents.

And I was told that they supported corporations getting 
involved in public schools despite the fact that I pointed
out to the Chief of Staff that the Bill of Rights forbids
the U.S. govt from usurping rights that are not specifically
delegated to them and that the right to public education are
not a right delegated to the federal government and thus it
is a right that is reserved for the states or the people thereof.
Thus the federal government should not be passing laws that
require that corporations control public education.

I was told that the Congressman has his position.

Previously when I tried to talk with Congressman Conyers about the 
fact that there was a federal law providing for large private
corporations to control public education - his office first promised
to look into it, and then told me that public schools were like
hospitals so since there were such arrangements with hospitals,
it was ok to have such arrangements with public schools.

But public schools are soverign government entities - 
governed by a very different set of constitutional obligations
than hospitals.

There is a federal law forbidding private entities from usurping
governmental functions - which has to do with liabilities for 
those private entities that are acting under what is known as 
"color of state law".

The Congressman's Chief Aide supposedly is a lawyer - I was
trying to explain why there was a need to review the 
Job Training Partnership Law and the intermessing of it with the 
Adult Basic Education Law - but I found that he was uninterested
and really even nasty that I should think I had some information that 
the Coangressman might have some obligation to examine.

So it seems that in the U.S., Congresspeople like this Congressman
are there to tell their constituents what the Congressman's party
position is - the Congressman is not there to hear from his
constituents.

So email access seems particularly important - since something has
to change - obviously the Congressman's aide that I spoke with
today didn't feel any need to have any feedback from the public.

If I wanted to try to send email to this Congressman - would I 
try the following email address?

jconyers@hr.house.gov

Are there other addresses I should try?

This aide seemed to say that their office never heard of email
-- and I've been calling their office for the past 3 weeks 
now and each time I talk with them they tell me that they
have never heard of email.

           ronda
           ronda@umcc.ais.org