On February 11, Victory Girls was one of over 4,500 websites that participated in a mass protest against NSA surveillance programs.  We are happy to report that approximately 187,000 emails and 90,000 phone calls were made to legislators that day.  We’re also sad to report that this barely scratched the surface.  Now comes the real work:

Every day, a document is circulated within each office and a hard copy of the document is placed on the legislator’s desk, as well as those of a number of key staffers. The document comprises world news articles, national news, state news, and any letters to the editor in the 5-10 biggest newspapers in the state that mention the legislator by name. The procedure may seem archaic—and to an extent, it is—but remember: people who vote, by and large, still read newspapers. And those people’s opinions are liable to be swayed by what they read in the newspaper. That is why legislatures make sure to have a finger on the pulse of the newspapers that their constituents are most likely to read.

What does this mean?  Simple.

The best way to get the attention of your legislators—unless, of course, you’re a wealthy donor—is to write a letter to the editor calling them out by name and to have it published in one of the 5-10 biggest newspapers in your state.

Maybe you’ve never done it because you’re not sure what to write.  Never fear, we’ve got you covered there too.  Here’s a sample that you can alter to meet your own needs (the author of this one believes the NSA should be dismantled but your mileage may vary).  For those who use reddit, there’s also a subreddit that just started, dealing with how to write letters to the editor.  You may find some resources and/or help there.  Point being, it’s all fine and good that people are writing to Congress, but you and I both know that they don’t really care unless they’re getting called out publicly.  (And sometimes not even then.)  For those who aren’t quite ready to kick tires and light fires, so to speak, this is about all you’ve got, so you need to get on it.  If you are ready to get the game on, stay tuned, because that part of the festivities will probably be forced upon us fairly soon as well.

While you’re thinking about what to write to your newspaper editor and how much ammo to stock for The Big Bang, check out our weekend links below the fold!