Dopp Juice Archive

In eleven days, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will have the opportunity to sign or veto the “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Act” (i.e. the latest push for gay marriage in the U.S.). I don’t take a stand in the political arena often, but for goodness sake, this bill was introduced without a court mandate and has survived the heavy debates of both the Assembly and Senate. That’s impressive. Clearly, California wants equal marriage rights for everyone. And clearly, Schwarzenegger wants to veto. Many of my friends are gay and hope to marry someday. I believe it’s cruel for the government to dictate who American citizens can and cannot marry. And when the entire voice of California speaks at once and calls for a change in law, I expect the governor to listen. Equality California is urging people to call the governor right away and voice how important it is for him to sign. My first thought was, “Okay! This is something I need to stand up for! I can do that!” My second thought was, “How do you call a governor?” So I did a little web research. Surprisingly few websites talk in general about how to contact your representatives, but a number of them give specific instructions for different issues. By piecing together the different instructions (and giving it a try myself), here’s what I came up with:How to Call Your Governor

1. First, find the phone number. The governor may have many offices, and there might be one near you. You can either call the main one or your local one, depending how where you think you’ll get better results.
2. Recognize that the office will probably be rude to you when you call, and you’ll need to insist that they write down your information and message anyway. It’s not personal, it’s politics.
3. Begin writing down what you plan to say. It should be brief and to-the-point. Start with your name, your city, and where you work (if applicable).
4. Write down what you want your governor to do, specifically. If it’s signing a bill, include the bill’s name, its identification number, and the major impact that bill will have.
5. Describe your personal reasons for demanding this action in the form of a brief but solid argument.
6. Insist that the governor gets the message.
7. Finish by thanking the message-taker for his or her time.
8. Now, practice that script out loud (so you don’t choke).
9. Pick up the phone and dial the number with your script safely at your side.
10. Get a busy signal.

I’ll try again later. Expect an update on how it goes.