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on DOE's Proposed Polygraph Policy]
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Letter | Letter-writing Campaign Against Polygraphy ]
Legislators Respond to Polygraph Protest Letter
Letter-writing Campaign Against Polygraphy
[See the tally of letters written.]
_____________________________________________________________
Goal
To stop DOE's effort to implement mass polygraph screening. We hope to deliver 4000+ letters each to select officials by 1 November 1999, to engage our politicians so they intervene on our behalf, and to gain wider political support. We urge LANL and Sandia to mount similar campaigns. 12,000 letters can have an impact.
Logistics
(1) We ask you as an individual to send personal letters of appeal, concern, and protest. A legibly handwritten personal letter is always very compelling. If you type or print a letter, then please add some handwritten closing line, along with your signature. E-mail and petitions with signature lists are easy to mass-produce, so they have reduced impact like junk mail. Ultimately though, sending something is better than silent assent. A list of addresses for selected federal and state officials is printed on this flyer. The address list has "primary targets" (local Congress people, Senators, President), and "secondary targets" (Governor, and more distant Congress people).
(2) Some suggested talking points are:
(i) Impact on recruitment, decay of DOE science quality. Polygraphy is pseudo-science and will cheapen the image of DOE science labs, a deterrent to intelligent prospects and people of principle.
(ii) Improve physical security before infringing on personal rights.
(a) Polygraphy does not address the basic security issues, e.g., "bookstore alarms" to keep classified documents on site, separate office buildings for classified and unclassified computer systems (no cross-talk), interviewing travelers on "high-risk" trips, reducing the amount and distribution of classified rather than increasing the number of people at security jeopardy.
(b) Polygraphy is much more likely to catch the innocent and hide the guilty--false negatives--a loss of both national security and human rights.
(iii) Polygraphy is intimidation by state power, a degradation of employee and citizen rights. This defeats the purpose of national security in the minds and hearts of an honest population. Under the threat of loss of livelihood, each employee is to be coerced into a procedure in which their bodies are used against them, and during which they cannot have the personal witness of a legal representative--this is torture. Have you no shame, DOE?
(iv) For more ideas, see http://www.spse.org, with news links and eighteen statements read to DOE at the 14 September polygraph hearing, primarily by LLNL employees.
(3) Please consider a few cautions, and a prompt:
(i) don't be impolite,
(ii) don't threaten "never to vote for XYZ again,"
(iii) don't paint yourself into a corner. Don't say, "I'll never work in DITTY WAH WAH again," or, "I'll quit!"
Governments ignore individual immolations. What we want is a massive display of deeply felt employee sentiment and unanimity. Do ask that legislators amend the DOE appropriations bill to prohibit polygraphic screening, or convince DOE Secretary Richardson to drop the rule.
(4) We request that you tell SPSE what letters you have sent, so we can keep a tally. We also request that you urge others who believe as you do to write letters during this campaign.
SPSE's Disclaimer
SPSE urges you to take this action because we believe it to be in every employee's interest, and because we think that time is of the essence. We are not concerned that you support SPSE in other respects by taking this action, and we have no hidden agenda, such as trying to attract new members. This campaign is simply beyond the capacity of SPSE alone, it requires Lab-wide participation to have any chance of success. Of course SPSE would like more dues-paying members, that never changes, but the appeal being made here is beyond any intramural factionalism. We are appealing to you because of our shared bonds of employment, citizenship, and community.
Who to write to...
[Webmaster's Note: Don't see what you're
looking for here? Look here for even more addresses.]
|
United States President William J. Clinton California State Government Gray Davis Cruz M. Bustamante California Legislators The Honorable Barbara Boxer The Honorable Dianne Feinstein (Representing Vallejo) |
(Representing San Rafael) (Representing Martinez) (Representing San Francisco) (Representing Oakland) (Representing Livermore) (Representing Tracy) |
(Representing Daly City) (Representing Fremont) (Representing Redwood City) (Representing Santa Clara) (Representing San Jose) (Representing the South Coast |
(Representing Stockton) New Mexico Legislators The Honorable Pete V. Domenici The Honorable Jeff Bingaman |
Food for thought...
"In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."
- attributed to Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984).
"It is true that liberty is precious--so precious that it must be rationed."
- attributed to Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov [Lenin] (1870-1924)
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
- attributed to Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
"We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;..."
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Declaration of Independence (4 July 1776)
"Delay is preferable to error."
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Letter to George Washington (16 May 1792)
"Even when the laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered."
- Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), Politics
9/29/99
[See what other people have said about the DOE proposed polygraph testing policy.]
You can also sign a letter of protest that will soon be mailed to our elected representatives!
 Go back to the SPSE Home Page http://www.spse.org/ |
