I e-mailed Senators Gordon Smith, Ron Wyden and Harry Reid and representatives Greg Walden and Nancy Pelosi last night. The Senators came first, but by the time I finally e-mailed Mr. Walden it had sort of degenerated into the following:

Dear Representative Greg Walden,

I do not understand the Bush administration's apparent obsession with (and preparations for) militarily attacking Iran. With our country already involved in one war in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, I do not believe our military would be capable of adding a third war.

I still believe the war in Afghanistan was somewhat justified, and that our efforts should be concentrated there, now, in capturing Osama Bin Laden and other militant Al Qaeda leaders. I do not believe the Iraq war was justified at all. I do not believe attacking Iran would be anything but disastrous for our country and for the rest of the world. Please, do what you can to help keep such madness at bay until a new administration can take over.

I tend to vote left, but I will consider voting for anybody who does not endorse the current administration's foreign policy and who will not endorse the continuation of those policies in the next administration, whether it be Democrat or Republican.

I am also very concerned about what I view as the Bush administration's abuse of our Constitution in regard to illegal wiretapping and concentrating too much power in the presidency. Their creation of a strong unilateral executive is hastening the end of America as we know it, in my opinion. I fear that our country is heading toward fascism, and I don't believe Congress is doing enough to reverse the Bush/Cheney power grab! Please do what you can to help during the next 447 days. That is way too much time left for the Bush administration to create more trouble for America.

I read your SCHIP letter (requesting "bipartisan cooperation" from Nancy Pelosi). I understand how you don't want kids who are not from poverty level getting free health care, but I can't believe that while the administration won't support SCHIP it is more than ready to pour about seven times that much money down what is arguably the biggest money pit in our nation's history. While you do good work in Congress for the interests of your district's constituents, as with timber dollars (thank you!) it dismays that you are out of step with America in regard to national issues. This is shown by the way you don't seem willing to help the U.S. to find its way out of Iraq sooner than later, and in the way you are unwilling to support giving all Americans the same level of health care the president gets. If you are going to use words such as "bipartisan", which suggest compromise, I wish you and other Republican leaders would take a genuine bipartisan stance when discussing the Bush administration's foreign policy, and also take a genuine bipartisan stance on Bush and Cheney's power grab.

Do you not realize that unless some of the administration's unconstitutional power-grabbing is reversed, there is a very real chance that 1) our country could be soon involved in three wars at one time, and that 2) Hillary Clinton or another Democrat could wield much more power than you want her to after 1/20/09? I do not want to see the first situation come to fruition, and it makes me queasy to think of any presidential administration having the kinds of unchecked powers the Bush administration currently has.

I think such scenarios could be avoided if you and many other Republicans in Congress would demonstrate some independent thought and not adhere so tightly to the Bush/Cheney line. It would make our country stronger and it would help us avoid disaster overseas.

(I added a comment about not being so far left that I want to shut down farmers, ranchers and the timber industry, and thanked him again for his efforts to keep alive the bases of our local economy).

SNAVE'S NOTE: Whether or not you agree with the sentiments I expressed in the letter, I believe you need to write or call your Senators and Representatives in Congress. Let them know how you feel. Sometimes I have to wonder if a major reason they are so out of touch could be that not enough of us give them our opinions. Sure, that is probably very naive, given the amount of money these people take in from various sources, but hey... if we don't tell them what we think, they won't know what we think, correct? Time to get busy writing and calling. My messages to the other elected officials were more mellow than this one to Mr. Walden, but WHATEVER.

This is the day and age of television, which Al Gore accurately describes (in his most recent book) as a "one-way" medium, with which people do not interact. This isn't like the times when Americans got their information from reading newspapers (to which they wrote lots of letters) or from town hall meetings (which involved actual participation and exchanges of information). Nowadays, the "marketplace of ideas" is controlled by television and to an extent, radio. This has contributed to the crushing of reason in debates, and to the informational dumbing down of America. Gore sees the internet as an interactive medium, and he thinks it could be what might save democracy. I'm not sure how much I agree with that, because I think there is far too much money involved anymore for things to change a whole lot... but I do believe there is power in the internet. We have seen the success of left-wing organizational efforts during the past decade. Right-wingers have made some gains as well. People will talk and will be heard, if they are allowed the opportunity. The internet allows the talking much more than radio and television do, anyway.

We need to keep blogging, and we need to write, e-mail or call our elected officials, and often.