At least somebody is

I took my fist leap into political phone calling last week. I know that all I've done is become a little checkmark on my senator's tally sheet of issues, but hopefully the phone call tally mark is a little darker than the email or even snail mail tally mark. I've done both emailing and snail mailing politicians to make my little squeak of a voice be heard, but I've never called.

When CSPI emailed me about contacting my senator about S1392 to improve foods in schools (it kills me that Ed's kids subsist on Mountain Dew, candy bars and Taco Bell throughout the school day every day), I wanted write off to my senator. But really now, I'm fairly certain they don't care about the emails, and it takes so long to address and stamp envelopes that I procrastinate writing Thank-you cards and mailing pictures to family. So what the heck, I decided to make the call. As an added bonus Working Assets, my long distance company, gives me a couple free calls to my congresspeople every month.

I figured I'd get an answering machine, so I wasn't really prepared to give a little speil about how I am a parent of a toddler and I want my kid's school to be free of junk food. But I got through to a person! I didn't even have to hold! I asked for the aide that the email told me to, and the receptionist asked me for my name and who I was with. I told her, "I'm not with anybody, I'm just me." Again waiting for the tally taker voice mail, I was surprised to speak with the aide. I introduced my self and told him I was calling in support of S1392, and asked what the senator's view is on it. He told me that the senator supports a similar bill and hadn't really worked much on this one. As we are wrapping up, he asks me who I'm with and again I explain I'm just a single voter and I'm not with anybody.

Wrigley, who had been drawing on the floor next to me the whole time, tells me after I hang up, "I'm with you Mommy."