Sample Letter to the Editor
This letter is just to spur your imagination – a short letter, even 4-5 sentences long, that is personal, connects with local issues (has there been a secret meeting or scandal in your district recently?), and expresses your own voice is ideal.
To the editor:
I live in ______ and I have worked _____ jobs over the past ___ years. In every job, I’ve had to either punch a clock, or at least tell my boss where I am at all times.
Now, with the Internet, it’s time that members of Congress started doing the same thing for us, their bosses. All they have to do is put their daily schedule online every day, so we can all check up on what our representatives are doing. I know I, for one, wouldn’t look every day, or even every week, but at least I’d like to know that I could look – it would make me feel better that they were doing our public work on our public dime.
It is especially important now, when we know they spend 20 weeks a year out of session – and have no idea what they are doing!
There’s a national effort to ask all Members of Congress (and candidates running for Congress) to take the “Punch Clock Challenge” and agrees to put their daily schedules on the Internet. I hope ___________ takes the challenge, and we all encourage him to do so, and bring our democracy into the 21st century.
Sincerely,
[YOUR NAME]
For Tips for getting your letter published, click here.
For a list of mailing addresses for newspapers, searchable by state, click here.
