Good morning, John.  What are you doing tonight?  In fact, everybody watching, what are you all doing tonight?  Watching some movies, maybe?  Gotta see some TV?  Scroll through the infinite scroll on Tumblr, maybe, or on Facebook?  Maybe you're gonna catch up a little on work, read a book, do some errands.  No.  I'm not gonna let you do any of those things.  Instead, we, all of us, we're gonna do a thing together, and no exceptions.  We are all going to write a letter to someone who represents us in government.  It's an assignment.  You're watching a video, and in return, you're getting homework, basically.  If you don't want to write a letter, put a stamp on it, and put it in the mail, stop watching this video right now, 'cause I'm gonna make you feel really guilty if you don't do it, unless you live in a country that doesn't have democracy, in which case, it is your responsibility to make all of us who do live in democracies feel real guilty for not sending letters.  

So I'm going to talk about how to send a good letter to your government representative or someone who works in your government.  I'm actually writing one of my letters by hand.  Now, of course, this is not necessary, but I'm doing this because I know that this is all about time capital, it's about value, and sending an email is easy, while writing a letter by hand, then hand-delivering it to the person's office, that's hard.  That's more likely to get noticed, and the nutty thing is, these letters actually matter.  

I actually had a hard time believing this, but I've talked to a lot of staffers from congressional offices and they agree, letters matter and phone calls matter, and they matter more than Twitter and email, because they show that the constituent cares more.  A letter to a government representative should be respectful, no curse words, no anger.  It should outline who you are and that you are a part of the community that that person represents.  You can outline how you are a part of that community if you wish.  You should also get to the point really fast.  If there's a way that this particular issue is affecting you in particular or you have a personal story, you should share that, but do it quickly, and without griping.  Outline, ideally, somehow separated a little bit from the rest of the letter, what exactly you are requesting.  

I'm asking for a ban on assault rifles in America, and for Congress to allow the CDC to study and fund the study of the public health effects on guns after a 20 year ban.  It's important to understand this particular representative's perspectives on the issue that you care about, so you know whether to thank them for their positions or not.  I've put some info in the description for how to find government representatives and how to look up their voting records.  Remember to include your address on the envelope in case they want to write you back, which, remarkably, they often do.  

I actually wrote three letters, one to each of my senators and one to my representative, the text of which can be found in the description, feel free to pull from those or to be inspired by them, but of course, make them different.  Form letters are noticed immediately by staffers and not given the same weight.  Of course, your issue can be whatever you want your issue to be, but I want us, as a community, to reach out to our governments, whatever country you're in, and let them know that we care about our countries.  

After watching Hannah's video this week, I simply could not not do this.  Right now, or tonight, but in the next 24 hours, do this thing.  Do it for me, do it for you, do it for your country, do it for whatever you want to do it for.  When we confine our shouting to the Internet, to Facebook and Twitter and Tumblr and talking to other people who agree with us, it might make ourselves feel better and feel righteous, but we are not on the path that creates the most change.  So one day, for one hour, instead of doing whatever you were gonna do tonight, do this thing.  

If you've written your letter, if you want to share it, you can send it to me on Snapchat or Twitter or Facebook or Tumblr.  You can use the hashtag or tag, if you're on a place that supports those things, so you can see other peoples' letters, and if you see them, thank them for sending their letter.  

Thank you for doing this.  I found it empowering and a little scary, but if you're not doing something that scares you every once in a while, you're doing it wrong.  John, I'll see you on Tuesday.