E-mailing the president is no longer just a click away
No one would ever accuse the Shrub Administration of being accessible (or accountable, for that matter). Now, the Administration appears to be making a concerted effort to become even less so than previously.
Do you want to send an e-mail message to the White House?
Good luck.
In the past, to tell President Bush -- or at least those assigned to read his mail -- what was on your mind, it was only necessary to sit down at a personal computer connected to the Internet and dash off an e-mail note to president@whitehouse.gov.
But last week, Tom Matzzie, an online organizer with the AFL-CIO discovered that communicating with the White House has become a bit more daunting. When he sent an e-mail protest against a Bush administration policy, the message was bounced back with an automated reply, saying that he had to send it again in a new way.
Under a system that was deployed on the White House Web site two weeks ago, those who want to send a message to Bush must now navigate as many as nine Web pages and fill out a detailed form that starts by asking whether the message sender supports White House policy or differs with it.
The White House says the new system, located on the Web at whitehouse.gov/webmail, is an effort to be more responsive to the public and offer the administration "real-time" access to citizen comments.
To complete a message to the president also requires choosing a subject from the provided list, then entering a full name, organization, address and e-mail address. Once the message is sent, the writer must wait for an automated response to the e-mail address listed, asking whether the addressee intended to send the message. The message is delivered to the White House only after the person using that e-mail address confirms it.
At least the Clinton White House embraced technology. I get the impression that the Shrubbies find it somewhat inconvenient and highly obtrusive (If we wanted anyone to know, we'd TELL them....). So, why make it any easier for anyone to communicate with the Executive Branch?
Of course, the Administration could argue that they get 15,000 e-mail messages a day, and how can anyone possibly stay on top of that? It's a valid argument, but I would submit that the answer is NOT to make it MORE DIFFICULT to communicate with the President.
If you do venture to whitehouse.gov/webmail, the process of leaving a message is at best cumbersome, and at worst insulting. The very first question asks if you want to "write a supporting comment" or "write a differing opinion". Of course, the cynic in me wonders if writing a "differing opinion" will get my message consigned to the technological ash heap.
As a means to manage the volume of e-mail that pours into the White House on a daily basis, I can understand why this sort of format would be appealing. Given Shrub's distaste for dissent, though, it does make one wonder what will become of those "differing opinions".
