Hello everyone,
 
I wanted to do a mailing to Senator Johnston's district, letting our folks
know that they need to persuade him to change his mind, and I was absolutely
THRILLED to see that the numbers of entries in his district has gone from
something like 50 to about 130 in just a year.  Senator Johnston killed our
bill last year and may very well do the same this session.  This Senator is
key to any ferret legalization bill passing the Senate.  As I was planning
this mailing, a wonderful volunteer member in that area and her husband
came forward and offered to coordinate a district meeting of the Senator's
constituents.  Terrific, I thought, we might be able to do something in the
Stockton area, maybe things are coming together.
 
I spent a few hours on the computer printing the labels (the printing
didn't take that long but the zip code search did).  I then wrote a letter
urging peope in Senator Johnston's district to get involved, letting them
know they were key to this effort.  I provided the Senator's address and
asked them to write to him.  I also introduced our district volunteer and
game them her number (with her permission of course).
 
I went to Kinkos and made 130 copies of the letter and 130 copies of our
legalization FAQ and Ferret Fact Sheet to include with the mailing.
 
A friend of mine and I spent a couple of hours (each) folding and inserting
the flyers, stamping the envelops with postage and our return address then
sealed them up and sent them off.  It was by no means the biggest mailing
CFL has done, in reality it may have been the smallest, but it was certainly
one of the most important.  I spent several hours of my time which I would
always much rather spend in some other way, but this issue is important to
me.
 
The letters were sent a little over two weeks ago.  Know how many calls our
volunteer received?
 
One.
 
This kind of thing drives me absolutely crazy.  What do these people think?
That ferret legalization is going to happen just because they, in their
silent hearts want it to?  Are they waiting for someone else to write,
someone else to get involved?  I've got news fro them: THERE IS NO ONE
ELSE!
 
I have committed to working on this issue this legislative session, but I
can tell you, I intend to re-evaluate my time and committment to ferret
legalization in the future.  It's one thing to donate your time and money
(and the generous donations of others) to an effort to right a wrong.  It's
another thing to see that time and money apparently wasted.
 
Jeanne Carley
Californians for Ferret Legalization
410 Mountain Home Road
Woodside, CA  94063
www.ferretnews.org
[Posted in FML issue 2612]