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From: jad@cbnewsl.ATT.COM (john.a.dinardo)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human,alt.activism,soc.culture.china,soc.culture.asian.american,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Lobbying for Refuge for the Vietnamese Refugees
Keywords: "Give us your tired, your poor", but above all, your imperiled
Message-ID: <3694@cbnewsl.ATT.COM>
Date: 17 Jan 90 16:52:28 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 34


My telephone directory, which contains only a half of one out of 26
counties in New Jersey, contains the names and addresses of 238
churches and synagogues in it's yellow pages. If the pastors and
rabbis of many of these 238 religious congregations were to mail 
their own personal appeals, on behalf of the Vietnamese boat people,
to their Congressional representative, he would be greatly impressed
by the unified political forces in his district aligning to launch 
such a strongly concerted humanitarian appeal. I think that the
push-pull incentive to reap commendation rather than condemnation from
this large church-going constituency might well motivate him to
introduce or endorse a bill to provide asylum for this shipwrecked
segment of humanity teetering on the edge of fate.

My plan is to type a one-page letter of appeal, go to my public
library and photocopy it along with the articles from the December 
25th issue of Time magazine and the January 11th issue of the
New York Times -- and gradually mail this appeal to these 
pastors and rabbis.

So, as a solitary individual, I have an opportunity to inspire an
entire Congressional district to action -- and it can only be done
when a noble, humanitarian cause is made to touch the hearts of
compassionate citizens in a nation where free will is not
suppressed by totalitarianism.

Imagine the reverberations on Capitol Hill if activists from a   
hundred Congressional districts were to succeed at such a campaign.

It could fail only if religious leaders do not really believe 
the principles of the religions to which their lives are supposedly
devoted. I intend to find out whether they really do believe.

   John DiNardo