spikezonebby

[spikezonebby]

Detailed Guide on Sending Letters to & Calling Your Senators

As I've been encouraging people to contact their senators to oppose KOSA, The Screen Act, and IODA, I've gathered that a lot of people would appreciate a comprehensive step by step guide on how to do these things. The unknown is anxiety inducing, and even if the actions are easy, it can still get overwhelming if you haven't done it before.

So instead of telling people to Google it, I just sat down and wrote an instructional guide on how to call and send letters to your senators. I even include how to gather supplies for letters and how to drop them off.

I hope someone finds this helpful and encouraging. I promise, once you start doing these things, it becomes a lot easier to do again the next time.

It goes over all these topics:

How to find your senator

What to put in a letter

The actual letters I sent to my senators

How to get supplies for a letter

How to address a letter

How to send a letter

A six step guide on calling your senator

How Can I find my Senator & Their Information?

Go to senate.gov and select “Contact Your Senators” under the “Senators” dropdown menu. Enter the state you live in and it will bring up your active senators.

NOTE: If in the future you want to write to your house representatives, you can type in your address on house.gov and it will bring up your representatives.

Their profile on the Senate website will have a “contact” button that will bring you to the senator’s website. Usually, at the bottom of the page or on a dedicated contact page they will have the addresses of all of their offices. You can select one close to you, or their office in Washington for your letter.

NOTE: If you want to email your senator as well, there are often contact forms on their websites where you can fill in your information and automatically send an email from there. No need to dig around for a specific address.

What Should My Letter Include?

Keep your letter to one page.

The goal is to get your opinion counted, not to write an entire persuasive essay.

Keep it to one issue per letter.

This helps staff better tally and record your opinion. It also means your letters take up more space and more of their resources, so if you’re really angry about multiple topics then that’s just a built in bonus.

Include your name, your city or zip code, and why you’re contacting them in the first paragraph of the letter.

Again, the goal is to have your opinion counted. Making it known that you’re their constituent and what your opinion is on the matter at hand at the start of your letter ensures it’s clearly communicated.

Identify the issue you’re writing about with the bill number and name.

Everything after is mostly fluff.

You can write about your reasoning for supporting or opposing a bill, include personal experiences that influence your view, or even request a response back. Some staffers might take note of these things, but others might not. I’m not saying it’s not worth doing, I took up the full page for my own letters, but if you don’t have anything fancy to say you don’t need to force yourself to write more because it’s not a requirement.

Letter Templates

In the next part of this post I have copy and pasted the letters I sent to my senators. I’ve left out my personal information and labeled what information should be changed to be relevant to you. They are formatted to be typed in a PDF and printed out.

I encourage you to write your own letters from scratch, as personalized letters can have more of an impact and it’s good practice for being able to independently articulate your own beliefs in a low pressure environment. While you can copy and paste my letters and send them to your own senator, I ask that you read through the letters fully and only send them if you agree with what I’ve written, as they are my own opinions and may differ from your own. Keep in mind, everything I wrote is from my perspective and is aimed at my Republican senators and what I think they’d respond best to.

SCREEN ACT

DATE

The Honorable SENATOR’S NAME

SENATOR’S OFFICE ADDRESS

Dear Senator LAST NAME,

My name is FULL NAME and I am writing to you from CITY, STATE. As your constituent, I urge you to oppose the S.737 - Shielding Children's Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net Act.

Children absolutely deserve to be protected from harm, but vast prohibitions and heightened surveillance of the entire population is never the solution, and has been shown to be ineffective in keeping children safe. In addition to this, it is a massive security nightmare waiting to happen.

Children are clever, and have been shown to use a variety of methods to circumvent even the most modern age verification technology, and while people claim this bill protects parental rights, it ignores parental responsibility to educate their children on online safety and to personally monitor and guide their interactions online. Not only is age verification technology ineffective in keeping children out, it risks limiting access to knowledge and freedom of speech for the masses. For instance, requiring age verification across the web would lead to many companies and organizations being unable to comply with regulations, forcing them to shut down as a result and taking whatever services, resources, and knowledge they provided for the public away with them.

Those concerns are before we even get to the fact this bill is a horrific data breach in the making, as businesses have historically failed to protect consumer data time and time again. Requiring adults to expose sensitive personal data to so many businesses and organizations exponentially increases the risk of incidents like identity theft and fraud, and in the worst cases can even risk the physical safety of the individuals exposed.

So once again, I urge you to oppose the Shielding Children's Retinas from Egregious Exposure on the Net Act, as it is ineffective and would do more harm than good for the public.

Sincerely,

SIGN IN PEN HERE

FULL NAME

YOUR ADDRESS

KOSA

DATE

The Honorable SENATOR’S NAME

SENATOR’S OFFICE ADDRESS

Dear Senator LAST NAME,

My name is FULL NAME and I am writing to you from CITY, STATE. As your constituent, I urge you to oppose the S.1748 - Kids Online Safety Act.

I WROTE ABOUT MY EXPERIENCE GROWING UP IN THE WILD WEST OF THE INTERNET AND HOW I UNDERSTAND HOW HARMFUL THE INTERNET CAN BE TO A CHILD. However, I believe this bill is an ineffective method of protecting children online, and it would restrict access to a wide variety of knowledge that may benefit children and adults alike, ultimately making the bill counterproductive.

Currently, the UK is enacting similar laws, and children are using a variety of methods to get around their restrictions, rendering them useless. It’s also pushing determined children to seek out less regulated sites and go deeper into the shadows of the internet where they are at an even higher risk of danger from online predators. Additionally, libraries of online information are being age restricted. Such information is not limited to depictions of sex, but has extended to censoring general knowledge along with a variety of resources that may actually help children in being able to identify the signs of abuse and seek support and safety. 

I truly believe education is one of the most powerful tools we have to arm our children with the ability to combat harm they may face. So I fear if we pass KOSA in America, the same things happening in the UK will happen to us and our children, failing to protect them while simultaneously stripping valuable resources from them.

So again, I urge you to oppose the Kids Online Safety Act, as it is not in the best interest of American children or the adults who care for them.

Sincerely,

SIGN IN PEN HERE

FULL NAME

YOUR ADDRESS

IODA

DATE

The Honorable SENATOR’S NAME

SENATOR’S OFFICE ADDRESS

Dear Senator LAST NAME,

My name is FULL NAME and I am writing to you from CITY, STATE. As your constituent, I urge you to oppose the S.1671 - Interstate Obscenity Definitions Act.

As you know, we already have definitions for obscenity. While some may find them too vague, the level of interpretation it provides is vital in allowing case by case assessments, and to prevent the government from abusing its power to censor freedom of speech.

Redefining obscenity as the bill intends could lead to far more harm than good. For example, this bill could be used to silence victims of sexual abuse from sharing their stories and warning others due to the graphic nature of their contents. It could also be used to restrict access to female healthcare information including resources on breastfeeding, since some people wrongfully consider the natural and necessary act of breastfeeding a child to be sexual.

I WROTE ABOUT MY EXPERIENCE AS AN ARTIST MAKING ART ABOUT MY TRAUMA AND HOW PUBLIC REACTIONS FROM POLITICIANS AGAINST ART THEY FIND DISTASTEFUL MAKES ME BELIEVE THEY WILL USE THIS TO CENSOR ARTISTS WHO HANDLE HEAVY TOPICS THAT AREN’T CONSIDERED PALATABLE.

1984 was a cautionary tale, not an instruction manual, so please, oppose IODA. Strike down this bill and any variation of it that may rear its ugly head again in the future, as people are putting faith in you to defend our freedoms.

Sincerely,

SIGN IN PEN HERE

FULL NAME

YOUR ADDRESS

How to Send a Letter

Supplies

Something to write on and an envelope to put it in.

You can get plain, standard sized envelopes at any office supply store, but places like Walmart, Target, drug stores, and most grocery stores should sell them as well near their section with school supplies/stationary/packing supplies. These standard envelopes easily fit 8.5 x 11 paper when folded into thirds horizontally. NOTE: You can absolutely send letters on postcards or greeting cards or whatever else you have on hand.

Stamps

Standard USPS stamps are currently 78 cents each. They never expire and you can send a standard rectangular letter anywhere in the U.S. with just one of them. Stamps are typically bought in “books” which contain 20 stamps. You can get them directly at the post office, but many grocery stores and drug stores sell them as well. NOTE: There’s lots of fun stamp designs you can buy at the post office or buy online at https://store.usps.com/store/stamps. There’s ones for square or irregular shaped letters, and additional postage increments for letters weighing over an ounce.

Addressing Your Letter

Your full name and address go in the top left corner.

Including this on letters sent to senators is recommended for several reasons. It shows that you really are their constituent and allows them to send a response back to you. NOTE: There have been incidents of letters containing deadly materials, like anthrax, being sent to political officials. So while I can’t definitively confirm this, I imagine if you don’t include your return address, it’s entirely possible your letter might get thrown out as a safety precaution.

The address you’re sending it to goes in the middle of the envelope.

When writing who it’s going to, include either “Senator” or “The Honorable” before the senator’s full name.

The stamp goes on the top right of the envelope.

NOTE: Some postcards have dedicated sections for where to put addresses and the stamp.

How to Send It

If you have a mailbox with a working mailbox flag, you can put your letter into the empty mailbox and raise the flag. This will notify the mailman that the letter inside is outgoing mail, and they’ll take it and get it sent out.

If you don’t have a mailbox with a flag, most apartment mailrooms, neighborhood mailbox groups, and office buildings will have a box or slot labeled “outgoing mail”. Just slide your letter in and you’re good to go.

Some places still have USPS blue letterboxes for dropping mail. They’re also called snorkel boxes, so occasionally you’ll see that on a sign pointing you towards the box.

You can always stop by your local USPS location. They’ll either have a mailbox outside for you to drop mail into, they’ll have a mail slot inside the building usually near the PO Boxes, or if all else fails you can hand it to the person working at the post office counter.

Step-By-Step Guide to Calling Your Senators

I KNOW phone calls are scary, but I promise calling your representatives are some of the easiest and fastest phone calls you’ll make. I’ve never had one over two minutes long and every staffer has been helpful and polite, even when I’m asking for my deeply Republican senator to oppose something I know they for sure agree with.

Go to your senator’s website and find their list of offices. Usually it’s either at the bottom of the webpage or in a dedicated tab. There you’ll find phone numbers for each of their offices in your state, and their office in Washington.

When you call during office hours, an office staff member will answer the phone. They’ll say something along the lines of “This is Senator [Last Name’s] office. How may I assist you?”.

NOTE: Some offices have voicemail boxes for after hours. Not all of them have it, and you won’t get confirmation from a person that your message has been noted, so I encourage you to call during office hours. But if you leave a voicemail, still include all the information present in the next steps.

Say hello! You can either give them your full name and zip code now, or you can do it later. But make sure you give that information to them before you hang up so that your input is documented.

Tell them what bill you’re calling about and tell them you want your senator to either oppose or support the bill.

That’s it! Say your goodbyes and hang up. The call is usually less than two minutes. You can give a brief sentence or two explaining your stance, but it’s not at all necessary. This is just for them to tally support or opposition to report back to the senator.

You’re all done! Wasn’t that so much easier than you thought? Go get yourself a treat as a reward. It helps with the after phone call anxiety crash.

[spikezonebby]

This could really be koss but either direction because HEAR ME OUT

Starscream and Knockout get stuck after a mission goes awry or smth and they end up sticking it out in a cave waiting for rescue. Knockout got one of his servos crushed and OOOO Starscream's the only one that can do it because duh. They're alone.

Starscream who USED to look after two other members of his trine and now is all alone. So now those old memories are popping up in the back of his mind and making him emotional BUT HE WONT SAY IT BECAUSE KNOCKOUT IS RIGHT THERE AND HES AN ASSHOLE

Prompt: Words and Hands

There was something warm there, sitting in the hollow between the words he spoke and the things he did.

"It doesn't matter," He'd say, as he tied the bandage tight around your arm. You could feel him tremble, even though his tone tasted like venom. "Don't apologize for things that don't matter. It's a waste of time for both of us."

[spikezonebby]

How come Meter seems like such a hard worker but is never anything but a meter maid? Is it because he likes his job too much to take a promotion/get a new one?

great question! Meter has never once been offered or asked for a promotion because his entire existence is REDUNDANT!!!

the JOKE of meter's existence is that he's a tiny metermaid car who can't drive over 60mph without breaking something, but he was made in a factory that makes enforcers, and moulded into an enforcer frame style, so because of TFA functionism, he HAS to be an enforcer. so they make him a meter maid. WHICH SHOULDNT EXIST BECAUSE A SOCIETY OF CARS SHOULD NOT HAVE PARKING TICKETS OR PARKING ENFORCEMENT.

And the governmental brainwashing in tfa is so bad that meter has been brought up and programmed to believe that he has to do what he was made to do, and if he doesnt do that the only thing he's allowed to do is fight in the war effort and he doesnt qualify to do that because he's too weak.

so he works at a dead end job where he gets verbally berated every day around coworkers who all hate him because he's weak and pathetic. and he's convinced that he's doing the right thing, and one day, everything will be fine :]

unsurprisingly, most every one of his various stories with his romantic partners involve him quitting his job and joining their emo band.

[spikezonebby]

I love it when artists adoringly draw their favorite female characters as these scrungly things. Women deserve to be your blorb shitto

[spikezonebby]

I got a Mr. Sinister pin from a blind box. Not my favorite but I still look STYLIN'

[spikezonebby]

I hate funkopops but I love Gambit and Rouge. Struggling within rn because THEY'RE RIGHT THERE

[spikezonebby]

are you actually dead

I'm a bit lost on what you're asking here, Ghost.

[spikezonebby]

almost forgot to post the freaky mins here!! i love putting this man in situations!! thank you anon for the request!!

[spikezonebby]

so abt the megs having a human pet that putsthe thing on his spark chamber. what if they figured out it wasnt doing anything and managed to make it more intense. turns it on mid-meeting

Oh my *god.* Sex toy jumpscare. I'm just imagining that the human stuck it there for fun, but they keep flicking it on and off and nothing happens. Okay, well. Shit. Maybe Megs' spark casing is made of lead and it's blocking the signal?

So, experiment time. Listen if you leave a human alone long enough with alien technology, they're bound to figure SOMETHING out. And it ends up escalating into the human discovering a signal booster Soundwave was keeping for something. They stuff it in the remote, make sure it's charged up, and they're fiddling with it while Megs gives a rousing war speech aaaaand...

They press the on button again, and the buzz is so intense that you can HEAR it rattling against the inside of his armor. Megatron lets out this wildly confused little half gasp, one servo flying to his chest and the other gripping the table. Fucking Starscream's up ready to announce that OH THE MIGHTY MEGATRON IS HAVING A SPARK FAILURE I SHALL BE THE NEW LEADER OF THE DECEPTICONS.

But the human turns it off, and Megatron is like "okay, what the pit was that?" And he's not about to go to ANY Decepticon medic for anything having to do with his spark, that would be suicide. All of these power-hungry slaggers would jump on him in an instant.

So it remains this little secret that the human keeps, aaaand... Occasionally turns on for their amusement. Especially if they can turn it on low enough that he can feel it but he tries to be a buckethead and just *power through* the odd sensation. He's wondering why the heck his spark is acting up lately, sending all kinds of warm pulses to the rest of his circuitry. His sex drive shoots through the goddamn roof.

[spikezonebby]

May I tempt you with IDW Tarn? He didn't know he that kind of bottom, and now he needs to come around the reality that he likes getting his aft stuffed.

Look, Tarn, I'm sure a lot of war criminals like getting fucked up the ass.

I'm not supremely familiar with IDW Tarn but I can tell you one thing: I don't think this mech can be normal about *any* kink, much less one that's probably considered a bit taboo and degrading to be on the receiving end of. He has a reputation, he can't let anyone know he likes this sort of thing! I can't even begin to guess how and why he figured out he does. Maybe he had a partner in bed that really only topped and realized Tarn wasn't really enjoying getting his valve fragged so... they tried anal and ooo. Tarn kept it together for the moment but I just *know* he was furiously rubbing his node and trying to stuff his digits in his hole after.

Do you think he used his outlier ability to knock out someone? Someone with a nice, thick spike he could bounce on with utter abandon behind closed doors. Lmao imagine he overloads from that and accidentally knocks out every single member of the DJD because they hear him through the walls and vents.

[spikezonebby]

My dear friends 🫂🇵🇸❤️

Our lives have become difficult and harsh 😭

and donations have become few and do not meet basic needs 💔💔

I hope you will continue to support, whether by participating or donating if possible 🙏

We thank and appreciate your standing with us in these difficult circumstances 🇵🇸💖🇵🇸

You've got this. Donate if you can!

[spikezonebby]

Thinking about ovi. Like not even egg laying but imagine a character with an ovipositor but they're having trouble getting the eggs out, so you jerk them off and gently work the squishy eggs up through their thick ass ovipositor.

Maybe seekers or speedsters lay eggs because they're specialized frames and their young need a little longer to gestate?

[spikezonebby]

dorothy brings megs to a football game. mf gets triggered by the drums bc they remind him of gunfire and tweaks out.

Man this would have to be far into the future but, yeah ptsd comes out of nowhere sometimes. It might not even be full on panic, he hears the band kick up and his first thought is to look to the sky for shells dropping.

[spikezonebby]

hey, you, what transformer am i

Well you're both a big Bee fan and also a Nightshade fan, so I'm going to go ahead and say you're not a Cybertronian but you *could* be Alex Malto! So, who's your Dorothy, Ghosty?

[spikezonebby]

Rung pen? Been going through it and i wanna buy pens to take to class that remind me of my blorbos lmao

OOOH, now Rung is an interesting choice. Orange is a fairly unusual fountain pen colour, second only to yellow I think in terms of not being at all a go-to colour. (Makes me sad. I love yellow.) Let me give you a few.

Similar to my pen I named Ostaros, I think of the IDW bots who have that 'internal skeleton' kind of body design like Rung has without kibble as being best represented by 'demonstrator' pens, i.e. ones with transparent or translucent plastic that show off the internal mechanisms. Nahvalur recently did a version of their Original Plus pen in a Halloween colourway that looks GREAT and fits perfectly:

(I have a Nahvalur Original; it's a great choice for a slightly nicer but still sub-fifty-quid pen! Use mine all the time.)

On the somewhat higher end of things, Sailor does some of their Professional Gear pens in the sort of translucent plastic that screams 'juicy 2000s-era iMac-style electronics in coloured translucent plastic', and I love their deep orange one in particular:

And finally, Rung is old as hell, so we need a vintage choice in there. This is a listing for a Parker Duofold from (according to said listing) 1990, or thereabouts. Old, vintage Parkers are often highly sought after these days, and very beloved by a lot of people. And so classy! Makes that orange look fancy.

[spikezonebby]

For anyone that needs to hear this.

[spikezonebby]

Who's more breedable? The guy throwing it back for Megatron, Ultra Magnus, and Drift, or the guy that goes insane for squishy human Noah Diaz?

Picture, if you will:

Rodimus getting passed around during a command meeting until his thighs are trembling and his knees give out.

Or...

Mirage holding his own legs up over his helm while Noah puts his whole goddamn heart and soul into filling the puss with jizz.

Back again guys