Tales of our Times
By JOHN BARTLIT
New Mexico Citizens
for Clean Air & Water
‘Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Twain!’ – Zesty Messaging, Then & Now
1867: Mark Twain
Mark Twain’s famed spoofery crystallized many of America’s durable truths. In 1867, Twain published a dodgy little piece titled “My Late Senatorial Secretaryship”. Twain recollects his imagined stint as secretary to a U.S. senator. In Twain’s mind, the senator asks him to answer a letter from constituents dealing with the rural post route to Tomahawk … but, “to leave them a little in the dark.”
Twain revels in the task:
Gentlemen: It is a delicate question about this Indian trail, but, handled with proper deftness and dubiousness, I doubt not we shall succeed in some measure or otherwise, because the place where the route leaves the Lassen Meadows, over beyond where those two Shawnee chiefs, Dilapidated-Vengeance and Biter-of-the-Clouds, were scalped last winter, this being the favorite direction to some, but others preferring something else in consequence of things, the Mormon trail leaving Mosby’s at three in the morning, and passing through Jawbone Flat to Blucher, and then down by Jug-Handle, the road passing to the right of it, and naturally leaving it on the right, too, and Dawson’s on the left of the trail where it passes to the left of said Dawson’s and onward thence to Tomahawk, thus making the route cheaper, easier of access to all who can get at it, and compassing all the desirable objects so considered by others, and, therefore, conferring the most good upon the greatest number, and, consequently, I am encouraged to hope we shall. However, I shall be ready, and happy, to afford you still further information upon the subject, from time to time, as you may desire it and the Post-office Department be enabled to furnish it to me. –Very truly, etc., Mark Twain, For James W. N**, U. S. Senator.
1970-71: New Mexico’s senior Senator Clinton P. Anderson
In April 1970 (pre-EPA), I began writing to the U.S. Department of the Interior, the agency then overseeing the notorious Four Corners Power Plant, to question the plant’s air emissions and seek answers. The bureau’s replies were generous with non-information and non-answers. I followed up with more exact questions, which brought still vaguer replies.
Before long, I copied these problems via snail mail to New Mexico’s senior senator, the Honorable Clinton Anderson, a member of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. The senator sent prompt replies, always with sympathy and informed thoughts.
For eight months more, I sent the senator a faithful copy when the agency resupplied no answers.
By chance, an extra-pointless agency letter arrived just after I had reread Twain’s confection from 1867 (above). From sheer frustration, I sent Sen. Anderson the entire dose of Twain’s genius. Simply magic!
Without doubt my letter piqued Anderson’s senatorial interests. He notably accelerated his efforts in the power plant issue.
To make a long story short, in May of 1971, the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs held hearings on the subject of “Problems of Electrical Power Production in the Southwest.” Five hearings in five states in five days were run by U.S. senators from both parties.
Although afflicted with Parkinson’s Disease, Sen. Anderson led the opener in Albuquerque. Comments that day ran the gamut, although few showed context in numbers. Years thereafter, work on pollutant numbers helped lower smoky emissions.
21st Century Digital Channels
Politics has two pillars of persuasion: Fresh, accurate details help and brigades of backers help. Both add strength. In the digital age, lobby groups commonly call on their members to “tell your congressman to do X.” The tactic rallies backers, but erodes – even masks – fresh, accurate details. The worst technology now auto-sends emails from constituents to legislators.
Such trends might move a faction to say Twain is obsolete, while myriads say Twain is timeless. “Polls” about less have fueled conflict in the news.
Sen. Anderson responded in person upon reading fresh details I sent. However, a single comment received in droves deals in rote. Today, any concern about clean air gets the standing list of kindred bills the legislator favors.
Discourse becomes less about problems or solutions, and more about competing vitriol aimed to gain a majority in both chambers of Congress. Oh, for a better route.