Today’s Downsizer-Dispatch . . .
Today is our second anniversary!
On July 14, 2004 at 2:16 PM Eastern time, DownsizeDC.org launched its Congressional Contact System.
Since then, we’ve also launched two bills as part of a Congressional agenda for budget reform and smaller government: The “Read the Bills Act” and the “Write the Laws Act.” We’re building a vehicle for change.
Our Congressional Contact System is magnetic, sticky, and viral.
* Magnetic: It attracts people to learn and take action.
* Sticky: Those who use our system also subscribe to our email list and receive future calls for action.
* Viral: Downsizers pass our calls to action to others.
We’ve combined education, recruitment, and activism into one step. This is unique in the small government movement. Sure, others lobby or engage in some form of political action. Others educate. But do they also recruit at the same time? Are they expanding the movement to decentralize and Downsize Big Government?
Well, we do. We are.
In two years time, through viral, “word-of-mouth” advertising, 13,147 have registered to use our system.
352,362 messages have been sent to officeholders, primarily from the House and Senate.
46,998 of those messages have been sent to promote the Read the Bills Act.
And we’ve tackled other issues along the way: campaigns and elections, monetary policy, welfare, privacy and security, foreign policy, censorship, the war on drugs, civil liberties, gun rights, the national debt, the FDA, eminent domain, and more. We’ve launched a whopping 42 different campaigns.
It’s fun to look back through the stats. In the early days, we were blown away by a campaign that resulted in 4,000 messages sent. Most campaigns were smaller. Today, we _expect_ 7,000 messages minimum, yet most current campaigns have gone _well_ beyond that.
Here’s a list of our best months in terms of number of messages sent…
1. March, 2006 — 43,044
2. June, 2005 — 41,031
3. April, 2006 — 37,737
4. July, 2005 — 24,534
5. May, 2005 — 20,703
6. June, 2006 — 19,878
7. May, 2006 — 19,470
As you can see, we’ve averaged over 30,000 messages per month for the last four months!
But the key to our strategy is the size of our army, or, to swith metaphors, our avalance. We’re trying to build a huge avalanche to innundate Congress. C.P. Snow said, “No snowflake in an avalanche feels responsible.” But the snowflakes in our avalanche will feel responsible. They will know they were part of something big and important. So far this year, we’ve registered 3,004 new DC Downsizers. On average, we’re adding 488 new DC Downsizer snowflakes to our avalanche per month, or, 16 per day!
The snowbank is growing. The avalanche is coming!
So how do we celebrate this anniversary?
Well, we send a message of course, and then, we tell friends!
Our system contains a “Tell-a-friend” feature, and more than 37,000 of those kinds of messages have been sent as well. Why don’t you try it out?
Here are two campaigns we haven’t mentioned in awhile…
1) Stop FDA Censorship
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is threatening fines and legal action against cherry growers for publicizing peer-reviewed scientific studies about the health benefits of cherries. This is a violation of the First Amendment, a threat to public health, and a back-door attempt to benefit politically influential drug manufacturers at the expense of fruit growers. Fortunately, there’s a bill in Congress that will stop the FDA from censoring scientific information that could save people’s lives. We need to support this bill. Click here to send a message to Congress urging them to pass the Health Freedom Protection Act:
http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=41
2) The politicians want YOU to be a snitch
HR 1528 has already passed through one committee and appears likely to pass through another. This bill, if passed, will force you to inform on your neighbors if you have any knowledge of drug related activity. We’re not making this up. First it was illegal to deal drugs, then use them, and then to be caught with them. Now, Congressman James Sensenbrenner wants to send you to prison if you don’t inform on your neighbors! “Informing on neighbors” has always been a key feature of past totalitarian regimes. Is this really what we want for America? Click here to send your message to Congress opposing this law:
http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=28
Thank you for being a “snowflake” in our growing avalanche.
Jim Babka
Head Snowflake
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.