Happy New Year from National Write Your Congressman

Happy New Year from National Write Your Congressman.  We wish you all the blessings 2012 can bring.

For this year's celebration we would like to give you some famous quotes and toasts given at the stroke of midnight.

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow" -Einstein

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man" -Benjamin Franklin

"It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past.  Nothing is as far away as one minute ago" -Jim Bishop

"The object of a New year is not that we should have a new year.  It is that we should have a new soul" -G.K. Chesterton

"One resolution I have made, and try always to keep, is this-To rise above the little things" -John Burroughs

"We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called "Opportunity" and its first chapter is New Year's Day" -Edith L. Pierce

"To the old, long life and treasure; To the young, all health and pleasure" -Ben Jonson

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year" -Emerson

"The bad news is time flies.  The good news is you're the pilot" -Michael Altshuler

A Different Christmas Poem

A Different Christmas Poem

Author Unknown

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,

I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.

My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,

My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,

Transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,

Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,

Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.

In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,

So slumbered I, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,

But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.

Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,

Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,

And I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing off in the cold and the dark of the night,

A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,

Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear

"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!"

Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,

You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,

Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.

To the window that danced with a warm fire's light

Then he signed and he said "its really all right,

I'm out here by choice.  I'm here every night."

"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,

That separates you from the darkest of times.

No One had to ask or beg or implore me,

I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.

My Gramps died in Europe on a day in December,"

Then he sighed,

"That's a Christmas Gram always remembers."

I've not seen my own son in more than a while,

But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,

The red, white, and blue...An American flag.

I can live through the cold and the being alone,

Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,

I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.

I can carry the weight of killing another,

Or lay down my life with my sister and brother.

Who stand at the front against any and all,

To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,

Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,

Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?

It seems all too little for all that you've done,

For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,

"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.

To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,

To stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead,

To know you remember we fought and we bled,

Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,

That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

Merry Christmas from everyone at National Write Your Congressman.

Pearl Harbor - Dec. 7, 1941

At 7:55 a.m. a Japanese dive bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan on its wings appeared out of the clouds above the island of Oahu. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes followed, descending on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious massacre. The surprise attack struck a critical blow against the U.S. Pacific fleet and drew the United States into World War II.

Diplomatic negotiations with Japan had been breaking down. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and his advisers knew that an imminent Japanese attack was probable, but nothing had been done to increase security at the naval base in Pearl Harbor. It was Sunday morning, and many military personnel had been given passes to attend religious services off base. At 7:02 a.m., two radar operators spotted large groups of aircraft in flight toward the island from the north, but with a flight of B-17s expected from the United States at that time they were told to sound no alarm. Thus, the Japanese air assault came as a devastating surprise to the naval base.

Much of the Pacific fleet was rendered useless. Five of eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships were sunk or severely damaged, and more than 200 aircraft were destroyed. A total of 2,390 Americans were killed and 1,200 were wounded, many while valiantly attempting to fight back against impossible odds. Japan's losses were some 30 planes, five midget submarines, and fewer than 100 men. Fortunately for the United States, all three Pacific fleet carriers were out at sea on training maneuvers. These giant aircraft carriers would have their revenge against Japan six months later at the Battle of Midway.

The day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, President Roosevelt appeared before a joint session of Congress and spoke his now famous words, "Yesterday, December 7, 1941--a date which will live in infamy--the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."

Thanksgiving

The event that Americans commonly call the "First Thanksgiving" was celebrated to give thanks to God for guiding them safely to the New World. The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days, providing enough food for 13 Pilgrims and 90 Native Americans. The feast consisted of fish (cod, eels, and bass) and shellfish (clams, lobster, and mussels), wild fowl (ducks, geese, swans, and turkey), venison, berries and fruit, vegetables (peas, pumpkin, beetroot and possibly, wild or cultivated onion), harvest grains (barley and wheat), and the Three Sisters: beans, dried Indian maize or corn, and squash. The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings"—days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought.

Thanksgiving Day, is a holiday celebrated in the United States on the fourth Thursday in November. It has officially been an annual tradition since 1863, when during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26. As a federal holiday in the U.S. Thanksgiving is one of the major holidays of the year. Together with Christmas and New Years Eve, Thanksgiving is a part of the holiday season.

From all of us at National Write Your Congressman, a very blessed Thanksgiving!

Veteran's Day Nov. 11, 2011

At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ended. At 5 a.m. that morning, Germany, depleted of manpower and supplies and facing imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiégne, France.

President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed an "Armistice Day" for November 11, 1919 in memory of those who died in World War 1.  Wilson said, "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations."

In 1938 President Calvin Coolidge issued a proclamation to make November 11 the legal holiday, "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."

In 1953 a man named Stephan Riod, the owner of a shoe repair shop in Emporia Kansas, had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all Veterans, not just those who died in World War I.  With the help of U.S. Representative John Salper a bill for the holiday was pushed through Congress.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed it into law, and the name "Armistice" was replaced with "Veterans".

This November 11, 2011,  Americans need to personally thank the Veterans they know for the sacrifice made by them to keep us at home safe with the ability to live in a free country.  If you do not know a Veteran and you see a Soldier in the mall, church, airport, or any where go up and tell that person thank you!

The Stamp Act

On Nov. 1, 1765 in the face of widespread opposition in the American colonies, Parliament enacted the Stamp Act, a taxation measure designed to raise revenue for British military operations in America.

Defense of the American colonies in the French and Indian War (1754-63) and Pontiac's Rebellion (1763-64) were costly affairs for Great Britain, and Prime Minister George Grenville hoped to recover some of these costs by taxing the colonists. In 1764, the Sugar Act was enacted, putting a high duty on refined sugar. Although resented, the Sugar Act tax was hidden in the cost of import duties, and most colonists accepted it. The Stamp Act, however, was a direct tax on the colonists and led to an uproar in America over an issue that was to be a major cause of the Revolution: taxation without representation.

Passed without debate by Parliament in March 1765, the Stamp Act was designed to force colonists to use special stamped paper in the printing of newspapers, pamphlets, almanacs, and playing cards, and to have a stamp embossed on all commercial and legal papers. The stamp itself displayed an image of a Tudor rose framed by the word "America" and the French phrase Honi soit qui mal y pense—"Shame to him who thinks evil of it."

Cuban Missile Crisis - Oct. 14, 1962

On this day in history the Cuban Missile Crisis began, bringing the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear conflict. Photographs taken by a high-altitude U-2 spy plane offered incontrovertible evidence that Soviet-made medium-range missiles in Cuba—capable of carrying nuclear warheads—were now stationed 90 miles off the American coastline.

Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union over Cuba had been steadily increasing since the failed April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, in which Cuban refugees, armed and trained by the United States, landed in Cuba and attempted to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. Though the invasion did not succeed, Castro was convinced that the United States would try again, and set out to get more military assistance from the Soviet Union. During the next year, the number of Soviet advisors in Cuba rose to more than 20,000. Rumors began that Russia was also moving missiles and strategic bombers onto the island. Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev may have decided to so dramatically up the stakes in the Cold War for several reasons. He may have believed that the United States was indeed going to invade Cuba and provided the weapons as a deterrent. Facing criticism at home from more hard-line members of the Soviet communist hierarchy, he may have thought a tough stand might win him support. Khrushchev also had always resented that U.S. nuclear missiles were stationed near the Soviet Union (in Turkey, for example), and putting missiles in Cuba might have been his way of redressing the imbalance. Two days after the pictures were taken, after being developed and analyzed by intelligence officers, they were presented to President Kennedy. During the next two weeks, the United States and the Soviet Union would come as close to nuclear war as they ever had, and a fearful world awaited the outcome.

Article from "The Hill" Constituent Communication

Released Tuesday Oct. 4, 2011, “Communicating With Congress: How Citizen Advocacy is Changing Mail Operations on Capitol Hill” finds that most congressional offices have seen a 200 to 1,000 percent increase in constituent communication volume in the past decade.

Of the 260 report respondents, 95 percent of those on the Senate staff and 89 percent of those on the House staff said that responding to constituent communications was a high priority in their offices. More than half of staffers surveyed also reported spending more time on such communications than they did two years ago.

But staffers in offices embracing technology early on were much more likely to report that they had sufficient resources to manage constituent communications than those offices that were considered late adopters of technology.

One significant factor in technology helping to tackle the load is offices responding to constituent letters via email rather than a reply letter, said Fitch. Those that don’t are operating at a disadvantage.

“In many cases, they’re seeming to apply the 20th-century paradigm of responding to a letter with a letter,” he said. “And that means, ‘OK, let's work weekends and let's work nights,’ and that’s their solution, as opposed to, ‘Wait a minute, this is an entirely new paradigm.’ ”

Additional ways to tackle increased communication include identifying efficiencies and streamlining processes, said Fitch. Offices are also encouraged to create robust websites with greater issue content information, which will reduce the need for constituents to contact lawmakers.

Michael Pagan, communications director for Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), has seen first-hand the benefit of technology in his office. “Yes, our office has definitely seen an increase in constituent communications over the past several years and we do indeed take advantage of technology as much as possible, especially email and social networking sites, to deal with the increase,” he wrote in an email.

While congressional offices continue to labor under restricted staff sizes — looking to technology to fill the gap — the increase in constituent communications could be viewed as a good thing, said Fitch.

“There’s a positive general note in here, in that more people are contacting Congress at a time when cynicism is rising and certainly their approval ratings are going lower,” he said. “They still are the go-to guys, they still are the people that citizens want to interact with and want to communicate with.”...The Hill

To read the entire article go to http://thehill.com/homenews/house/185197-constituent-communications-up-nearly-1000-percent-congress-turns-to-technology