Mid-Michigan Dining

On-line petitions are worthless.  They are succeptable to fraud.  If you want to be taken seriously, paper petitions are still the only way to get any kind of respect.  The Michigan United Conservation Club has posted an on-line petition encouraging the expansion of Michgan’s Bottle Bill to include bottled water and juice.  While I agree with the position, I hate on-line petitions.  I have five e-mail address that I still have access to, so I can sign this petition five times…all under different names and some of them not even real names.  The goal of their campaign is 1000 signatures.  So far, they have 89, but the petition was just posted today, so with little media expsosure they’ve got a good start.

The website also has a preformated letter that you can send to your legislator.  Again, I agree that if you want to see the bottle bill expanded, you need to let your legislator know, but not through a form letter.  Those are read and discarded.  If you have an opinion, let it be known, but let it be known in your own words.  Form letters do more harm that good.

There’s also a lobby day at the Capitol this week.  I do like these events when it comes to persuading legislators.  I’ve been in a statehouse where hundreds of people have packed in to lobby for their cause. It’s hard to ignore that.   If there’s enough people, it’s really hard to have a conversation in the hallways and that’s frustrating for legislators.  They will take notice of that.

The point of this post?  Get behind the bottle bill expansion, but don’t play follow the leader.  Find you’re legislator and make your feelings known, but do it in your own words.  Even if it’s just a couple of sentences, it will be more meaningful than signing your name to someone else’s work.