From: Stanton McCandlish <mech@eff.org>
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 95 11:15:58 PDT
To: shabbir@panix.com (Shabbir J. Safdar)
Subject: Re: Why no action alert, coalition opposing S. 974?
In-Reply-To: <199507220451.AAA25935@panix4.panix.com>
Message-ID: <199507241813.OAA20458@eff.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> Let's read the bill and get ready for a fight.  We should hold Grassley
> accountable for this next election.  But we're spinning our wheels by
> acting against every bill that affects one of our issues.
> 
> -Shabbir

I'd agree with the gist of Shabbir's entire message, except the last 
sentence, which I think needs some qualification.  Trying to fight every 
useful fight right now *is* counter-productive, because we're not at a 
stage yet where any of our organizations, or our coalitional 
meta-organization, can handle the load.  And the grassroots activist
infrastructure of the net can't handle it either.  But, that's not the 
way it should be.  We need to, and if we all work at it, we will, get to 
the state at which we can handle the load, and can fight all the good fights.

Part of what's needed is, frankly, for folks like those reading this 
message to take a little time out from endless arguments on newsgroups 
and mailing lists, from all the entertainment and fund, and become a 
little more politically active so we can preserve the possibility of 
having any fun at all.  How many of you are organizing groups like 
EF-Houston or VTW or SEA on a local or state basis?  I don't imagine many 
virtual hands are raising.  Hop to it folks.  This is no a 
one-dimensional fight, it's three dimensional.  You've got lobbying and 
national-level policy work being done, but local grassroots organizing 
via the net is still in a larval stage, and needs to be advanced. So does 
coordinated response to crap journalism and lack of serious coverage of 
the issues we find important.  Get in touch if you're interested in 
helping start local groups.  I'll keep a geographical list and try to put 
fairly close matches in contact with eachother.  


--
<A HREF="http://www.eff.org/~mech/">          Stanton McCandlish
</A><HR><A HREF="mailto:mech@eff.org">        mech@eff.org
</A><P><A HREF="http://www.eff.org/">         Electronic Frontier Foundation
</A><P>   Online Services Mgr.