By Edward Miller

To stretch the old cliché, it’s not just who you know, it’s who you keep in touch with. Elected officials are sensitive to constituent contacts. Your overtures are important. They get through; they get logged and counted. Sometimes, they even get responded to.

Facebook just made the process easy with “Town Hall,” a feature that lets you follow everyone from your state legislator to the president. What’s more, “Town Hall” enables you to send messages via email or Facebook. Learn more about Facebook’s Town Hall, and how to connect.

It could not be easier, so get started, or as we say more pointedly, GOYA (Get Off Your Ass). Send your Republican Senator an email today asking why he or she voted against Planned Parenthood, the single most effective organization working to improve women’s health. After you’ve learned how easy it is, send another message tomorrow asking your congressman how he or she stands on an issue near and dear to your heart.

Don’t worry if you don’t get a response. The metamessage is getting through. Elected officials and their staffs have learned that millions of Americans are mad as hell and have decided to do something about it.

Another tip about keeping in contract: Go online and find out the name of the relevant Field Representative for your congressman or senator. These are the officials’ key gatekeepers. Get them to know your name and that you are watching.

Staying AWAKE

Our neighborhood resistance group called AWAKE (Armed With Action, Knowledge and Energy) has been busy. In addition to our voter registration efforts we spent an evening sending 153 personal postcards to Democrats in the 6th Congressional District, where there’s a chance to take back the seat vacated when Rep. Tom Price joined the cabinet.

Now 153 cards may not sound like much, but when you add together similar efforts to “Flip the 6th” you can count about 400 volunteers addressing 10,978 cards that potentially reached more than 15,000 reliably Democratic voters. A lot of small local efforts can make a difference as both national parties pour millions into the campaign, the first post-election referendum on Trump.

AWAKE meets monthly, or whenever there’s pressing work to be done. Over the next two weeks we’ll be canvassing neighborhoods prior to the April 18 election.

We encourage you to form such a group. It can make a difference.