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Delda, You are absolutely right. I am the one who was told by a staffer that regular mail gets attention over email. They just don't have the staff to sort or sometimes even to look at their email. It may be months before you hear anything on the email, if ever. My thought with these shells is not to ram them down anyone's throat, believe me. I call them "shells" because one can use as many or as few of the ideas in their own letters to congress as they wish. My thought was that they could easily, if someone were so inclined, be converted to WORD or another word processing program straight from their email form, a return address and inside address could be added, this or that could be deleted, this or that could be added, and in the end one might have something he or she would want their congressional representative to read. My thought would then be to SNAIL MAIL OR FAX (faxing is good) the letter unless your representative or senator had an office close to you and you felt up to delivering it in person (which I know to be effective). About the length, I have heard several opposing stories. One is that you should try to say it as succinctly as possible. I shall never be accused of being succinct. Another is that they are inclined to read the l o n g (Did you every notice how short the word "long" is?) letters. Who knows which to believe, which is true? I sure don't! I can tell you that I wrote a 4 or 5 pager to my congressman, delivered it to a local office in person and got a call the next day from his legislative aide in Washington in charge of health issues. I don't know if it was my letter or the fact that I fogged up when I handed the letter to the staffer, but I certainly did get a response! Bless your heart for your interest. Sincerely, Barb Brock