Chain letters with and for a difference

Idea exchange
March 2001

Chain letters—with and for—a difference
When you find a few spare minutes, you really want to sit down and pen a letter to President Bush to express your support for a moratorium on federal executions. And you meant to write to your senator about the Hunger Relief Act. And one of these days you're going to get around to e-mailing somebody about campaign finance reform.

If only you had a personal secretary!

Now progressive-minded folks can have one—for free. ProgressiveSecretary.org is an online project designed to organize letters to Congress, the president, and other decision-makers on a variety of social justice issues. By joining the "online letter writing cooperative," members receive proposed letters via e-mail. After looking them over and deciding whether or not the particular issue is one they feel strongly enough about, they can forward the e-letter as is or rewrite it to their liking before sending it off to their local representatives in Congress.

In its three-year history, ProgressiveSecretary.org has composed nearly 500 letters on peace, ecology, civil rights, workers rights, and other issues. The most recent letters address topics ranging from human rights abuses in Colombia to inhumane animal slaughtering.

The project is the brainchild of Jim Harris, a self-described "sixties activist" and a Quaker, who decided to devote his life to "computerized activism" after treatment for leukemia left him partially disabled. "For all our chanting, liberal people tend not to vote," he says. "And the same thing is true when it comes time to visit congresspeople and write letters."

Lack of time is a problem for many busy social justice-minded citizens. But so is the need for well-researched information on the topics. ProgressiveSecretary.org draws on its nearly 4,000 members—many of whom are already members, volunteers, or employees of organizations such as Amnesty International, Pax Christi, or the Friends Committee on National Legislation—to research, write, edit, and proofread the letters.

The final decision on which letters make it to your e-mail box, however, comes down to Pat Murphy. "I kind of go by the seat of my pants," says Murphy, who like Harris, is an unpaid volunteer. A fellow Quaker, the 74-year-old is also a longtime activist, having worked for the American Friends Committee, the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice, and other causes.

As for what constitutes a "progressive" issue, Murphy says it's like the Supreme Court definition of obscenity: "I know it when I see it." But, he says, "it's very rare for me to reject a letter because I don't consider it 'progressive' enough."

Those who subscribe to ProgressiveSecretary.org may not always agree with every proposed letter. If members don't reply, no action is taken on that letter, and letters are never sent without a member's approval.

Past letters have supported the Cesar Chavez Holiday, the lifting of Iraqi sanctions, and the labeling of genetically engineered foods. Others have opposed increasing the military budget, sending Pinochet back to Chile, or sweatshops in El Salvador. A thank-you letter was sent to Illinois Gov. Ryan for instituting a moratorium on the death penalty. Land mines, the School of the Americas, Japanese whaling, and the Child Soldier Convention also have been the subject of past letters.

Though they may find little to argue with in the majority of letters organized through the web service, Catholics and others who oppose abortion will have to keep a close eye on the letters forwarded to them by ProgressiveSecretary.org. A small number of letters have supported "the right to choose" on the issues of abortion and euthanasia, which contradicts Catholic social justice teaching.

Murphy says the majority of ProgressiveSecretary.org members support abortion rights and physician-assisted suicide. "But we have a minority of people who don't, and for that reason, we try not to be strident on that issue," he says. "We don't seek out letters on that."—Heidi Schlumpf

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