Democracy in Action
In the July issue of AMT, we published an article by Bill O’Brien titled Open Letter: AMT Day Recognition. If you haven’t read it yet, I encourage you to click on the link above to read it now. O’Brien discusses how to contact your U.S. Congressmen and Senators to get them to support the National AMT Day resolution being introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.
I am no stranger to contacting my representatives. A few years back, I asked our State representative David Ward to sponsor a bill proclaiming May 24 of each year as AMT Day in Wisconsin. He agreed, and on June 10, 2003, a joint resolution was passed proclaiming May 24 each year as AMT Day in Wisconsin. The process was fairly easy. But Representative Ward wouldn’t have acted on his own. It took me asking him to introduce the resolution to get it done.
It’s time to ask our U.S. Senators and Congressmen to support the National AMT Day resolution. Ken MacTiernan did his part — he flew to D.C. and met with his Congressman, the Honorable Robert Filner and asked him to introduce a resolution proclaiming May 24 as National AMT Day. Congressman Filner agreed, and did his part by introducing the resolution. It’s time for us to do our part and garner support and co-sponsors for Congressman Filner’s resolution to get this legislation pushed forward.
I did my part earlier today. It was quite easy. I logged on to www.house.gov. I entered my Zip Code +4 and was directed to my U.S. Congresswoman — the Honorable Tammy Baldwin. There was a form on her website to submit a letter, and I submitted a short letter to her using some of Bill O’Brien’s verbiage from his article and adding some of my own.
Next, I went to www.senate.gov. I clicked on “WI” on the drop-down menu at the top of the page to find my two Senators. I went to each of their websites and wrote each one a short letter based on the letter I had already submitted to Congresswoman Baldwin.
The whole process took less than 20 minutes.
So, are you ready do your part and invest 20 minutes of your time to help make the National AMT Day resolution a reality? I can’t do it by myself. A dozen of us can’t do it by ourselves. It will take all of us to do our part. We need to flood the Senate and House with tens of thousands of letters!
The wrench is in your hands now! Don’t let this opportunity pass us by. Don’t let this die on the vine because you assume someone else will write his or her letters.
Thanks for reading!
Joe Escobar
You can suggest things to our elected government and even speak up in opposition, without fear. And people complain about of government.
I will do my part! And it feels really good to know you have had your say. Freedom only works when we do.
Here I am bragging about democracy in action, and I just read a news story this morning by Aviation Daily’s Adrian Schofield reporting that the “Honorable” Senator Jay Rockefeller from Virginia is threatening general aviation associations who are opposed to the $25.00 user fee in the Senate’s FAA reauthorization bill. He told them that if they fight the user fee and manage to get it dropped from the bill, he will “address the equity issue” by limiting private planes’ access to congested airspace. “There are ways to do that, and we will find those ways,” he said.
You gotta be freakin kidding! Way to go Senator Rockefeller for threatening your constituents and citizens of the United States of America for voicing their opinion and letting their elected officials know what they think about the airline-backed user fees.
It’s an arrogant move on Rockefeller’s part if you ask me.
Makes me want to sit down and write a few more letters to my Congresswoman and Senators.
Joe Escobar
I can understand having our presence recognized can help some mechanics feel better about themselves. I’m surprised that industry leaders didn’t push for it after the FAA started its award program. I wonder if the additional public exposure could actually make the supply/demand problem worse than it already is for mechanics. I have never known a symbolic action that ever benefited workers.