Fax your Local Representative
No seriously, you should!
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Many people are just tagging their representative in the comments sections of journalists to do something to help the Global Sumud Flotilla. It is good to put those name out there, however many genocide denial groups are pressuring politicians directly (Or just offering them some luxury trips) and have a team of people that are ready and coordinate to contact representatives directly to flood them with requests.
On social media however I imagine many politicians have their tag notifications turned off, don’t allow tagging, have a staff member that handles them, or just straight up ignores them. So it is essentially screaming into the void.
My suggestion (in case you didn’t read the title) is to Fax them!
A Fax machine you ask? Those weird phone waffle irons?
Yes, they are actually still used by Doctors and Lawyers because they are a low tech semi-secure way of sending sensitive information.
However you don’t need to drag an old fax machine from your local thrift store or e-waste bin. Many online services exist that allow you to send a fax, some even come with introductory fax credits for when you create an account.
There are several tutorials out there that show you how to use these services, so here I am going to give you an outline here of the steps you need to take.
Look up your local representative and find their fax number.
Sign up for one of the many Fax services out there eg (efax, hellofax, thegrizzlylabs, etc)
Create your cover page, this can also include your comments as well.
The cover page makes it clear who the fax is for and makes it more official looking.
Some services give you the option to create a cover page right there in the app.
I use Libre Office on Linux and there are Templates available online, there are Microsoft Word ones here. (Colour faxes are not really a thing, so I wouldn’t bother with templates that have so many.)
You can include your comments in the cover page if you would like.
Create you letter (Skip this if you included your letter in the cover page)
Export all the documents to PDF.
Upload the documents to your selected fax service.
Enter your representatives phone number.
Send.
The hope in doing this is to give people something to stand out in the noise of constant tagging and social media. I personally believe that human lives and rights are worth a learning an old skill and time.