I just wrote a big stinky letter about SOPA/PIPA to all of my government representatives. Like, really really. Sent it off to each of my three peeps: Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell and Jim McDermott. I wholeheartedly recommend you all do exactly the same thing to your reps Feel free to even use my exact letter below. Well, you may want to leave out the first part about being six years old…but steal the rest as much as you want! 🙂 DO IT NOW…because they’re supposed to vote on this issue on January 24th. That’s next week!

Dear [Congressperson],

Let me start off by letting you know that I am a career voter. I’m serious…there’s no other way to put it. When I was six years old I came home crying from school because I found out that our exercise in voting wasn’t real. See, I was PISSED OFF that my vote for McGovern didn’t count. Oh boy, was I pissed. I then counted the days until I could legally vote and ferociously absorbed everything about every political person and issue I could find. I was obsessed.

The result of this obsession is that I have voted in every single election since turning 18 years old in 1984. I enlisted friends that otherwise wouldn’t have given a shit to register to vote and vote with me. I have voted for YOU every time you have run since I moved to Washington state in 1989. And I PROMISE that I WILL NOT VOTE FOR YOU if you vote for SOPA or PIPA. PERIOD. I’m. Not. Kidding.

Furthermore, I’m working hard to get all my friends…in real life and online…to do exactly the same. Think about it. DO NOT LET SOPA/PIPA pass! I’m dead serious.

SOPA and PIPA would put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won’t have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn’t being infringed. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won’t show up in major search engines. SOPA and PIPA would build a framework for future restrictions and suppression.

You all in Congress say it’s about trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the “cure” that SOPA and PIPA represent is worse than the disease. It’s target shooting with a shotgun. SOPA and PIPA are not the answer: they would fatally damage the free and open Internet.

I cannot stress this enough. Please watch this video. LISTEN to what he’s saying.

And let me say it one more time to be absolutely clear: I WILL NOT EVER VOTE FOR YOU EVER AGAIN IF YOU VOTE FOR THE BULLSHIT THAT IS SOPA/PIPA.

Thanks for reading this. I hope you read the whole thing. I don’t know anymore if you guys care about us little guys or not anymore. And that makes me sad. It makes me beyond sad.

Sincerely,

Dyanne R. Kessler
Career Voter and Passionate American

20120119-131445.jpg