1) All the people I have ever known with knowledge of the inner workings of a politician's office have told me that an actual letter--the kind that's printed on paper and snail-mailed with a stamp--carries much more weight than an email. Emails are quick and dirty. You can copy and paste and off it goes. Legislators often receive hundreds of emails with exactly the same wording, and these don't carry nearly the impact of actual letters. So, if you're going to take the time to communicate with a legislator or administration official (at any level), write it, print it, put it in an envelope and mail it.
2) Facts are lovely things. Opinions are nice, but back them up with verifiable facts. Facts are often the trump card to opinions. Lots of people really believe that public-sector workers earn more than their private-sector counterparts. When you show them the actual numbers that prove that is not true, you usually win the argument.
Usually, but not always. There is research that shows that people with deeply held beliefs, when presented with facts that show their beliefs to be incorrect, actually believe more strongly! The research goes on to suggest that this "backfire" effect is more pronounced with conservatives because their views may be more rigidly held than with liberals. (Click here for the Washington Post article describing this research.) That's OK. You're not trying to reach the person who is hoarding bullets because they believe that the government will outlaw guns any day now. You're trying to reach the "low information" person who may believe something just because "everybody else" believes it, or because they heard a "talking head" on radio or TV say it.
Where do you get the facts you need. Have a look at the Retiree Council No. 4 website (www.nysutrc4.org). We've posted lots of helpful facts there. If you've been saving my messages, they contain lots of facts. (If you haven't been saving them, I'm working on a way you can retrieve them when needed, but that's another topic for another day.) There's also Google. Just remember that the internet does not have an editor or a fact-checker. Just because you find something on a website does not make it true. Consider the source when looking at facts, or things that claim to be factual.
3) All salesmen know that you need to "anticipate the objection." What fault might someone find in your argument. This is particularly important when writing a "letter to the editor" since most publications limit how often your letters may appear, and this means that you will not be able to reply to another reader's "gotcha" in a timely manner.
Here's an example of a letter that anticipates the objection, and drops in a few facts along the way:
September 4, 2010
Editor, Observer,
In his recent “Publisher’s Notebook,” John D’Agostino doesn’t let verifiable facts get in the way of a good rant.
He states that California is in serious trouble because they have seriously underfunded their public pension obligations. No argument here. Some reports have this underfunding at several hundred billion dollars. Mr. D’Agostino then states: “Without question, Schwarzneggers's crisis is similar to the one in our state.” That is where he and the facts diverge.
By law, New York State’s public pension systems, unlike those in many states such as California, are fully funded. Some say that being “fully funded” is based on an unrealistic assumption of an 8% rate of return on investments. According to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, since 1985, a period including three economic recessions and four years when median public pension fund investment returns were negative (including 2008), the median public pension plan rate of return was 9.25% – or 1.25% greater than the 8% rate labeled as "unrealistic" by critics.
Critics complain that retirement costs to localities and school districts are skyrocketing, and will bankrupt them. Employer contribution rates for the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System, one of the two largest public retirement systems in our state, are a matter of public record. In the 1980’s school districts paid an average 21% of salaries as a retirement cost. In the 1990’s that figure dropped to 5.7%, and in the first decade of this century school districts contributed an average of 4.4%.
No one will argue that New York State has not managed its fiscal affairs in a boneheaded manner. New York taxpayers should know, however, that there are no “underfunding” monsters hiding in the public pension system to cause them alarm.
4) Finally, there is the matter of sensitivity. I'm sure that you have noticed that there is a world of economic hurt abroad in the land. Unemployment is high, it now takes about 40 weeks for the average job-seeker to find work (twice the historical average) and many--including teachers--are underemployed at jobs far below their skill levels. Things aren't really fair for teachers these days, but they are equally unfair for the person who has played by the rules yet seen their economic security slip away through no fault of their own because their job has been outsourced. Read you letter through the eyes of others before sending.
OK, then, start writing!
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