Salem update: Lawmakers check in

Today State Sen. Ginny Burdick left a message on my answering machine apologizing for an 11-week delay in getting back to me. Seems she has suffered disruptions from staff changes etc.

Anyway, we are now playing phone tag, but it looks as though we may have some traction on getting media literacy legislation introduced this legislative session.

Actual passage is an open question....

Rep. Mary Nolan has expressed interest in the subject too, and Rep. Larry Galizio, a PCC teaching colleague, has agreed to put forward legislation on my behalf. I've told him I'd like to persuade my fellow Northwest Media Literacy Center board members later this week to be primary backers.

Stay tuned.

Lawmaker shows interest in Media Literacy

My amateur lobbying effort to give Media Literacy a formal place in the state’s schools has finally drawn a direct response from Rep. Mary Nolan, my state representative. My state senator is Ginny Burdick, who, after more than two months, still hasn’t responded to my correspondence.

If you want to review my “blog trail,” it begins here, then goes here and on to here.

Which brings us to yesterday, when Nolan e-mailed me. The relevant section of her e-mail follows. The Rep. Galizio mentioned is another state representative, Larry Galizio, who teaches media issues with me at Portland Community College. He has urged me to work through Nolan and Burdick and is unwilling to take the initiative because, he says, he is on the Ways and Means Committee. I still can’t fathom his reasoning, but, hey, he’s the decider.

So here is Nolan’s response….

Rick,

Thanks for your note. Always good to see your name in my in-box.

Here are my thoughts….

(Media Literacy) is an intriguing idea, which I'd be interested in learning more about. I'll follow up with Rep. Galizio, as well as investigate whether this is addressed in any way in the high school or community college curriculum in Oregon. Perhaps you could tell us a bit more about what the NW Media Literacy Center does.

Thanks,

Mary Nolan

I replied to Rep. Nolan and noted that she and anyone else can find out about the Northwest Media Literacy Center at mediathink.org.

I have also forwarded to her Oregon legislation that got to the governor’s desk in 2001 but died there because it hadn’t been vetted by the Superintendent for Public Instruction. The legislation establishes a state commission on Media Literacy that would advance its cause. I’ve also shared a New Jersey law that mandates that media literacy be taught in the schools.

Oh, and I’ve copied Sen. Burdick. At this late date I’m just testing to see whether she reads the e-mails she invites us to send her.

I’ll keep you posted.

Be still my heart! Stirrings in Salem!

Here is an update of my on-going mini-saga with seemingly aloof Salem legislators.

This episode notes signs of a pulse in Rep. Mary Nolan's office. It follows on my gentle prodding of her and two other lawmakers to introduce legislation that would advance Media Literacy in Oregon.

So far my admittedly amateurish lobbying has consisted of a trickle of e-mails (with relevant and short attachments) from me that have gone largely unanswered.

I am somewhere between being perplexed and exasperated by the experience.

But I am learning.

More than that, the silence from Salem is steeling my resolve.

First, a taste of Media Literacy, which is well established in schools in several other states—but unrecognized here.

Media Literacy is, among other things, an effort to get children (and adults) to be critically aware of media’s impact on their lives, their communities, their country and their planet.

Here's an example for children: When a cartoon program repeatedly tells kids that eating sugar-frosted, glucose-injected cardboard is great fun, kids (and their parents) should think about what this junk will do to their bodies and brains. Consequences like obesity and hyperactivity, for starters.

Example for "adults": When Super Bowl advertisers suggest to mass male audiences that drinking Coors somehow goes hand-in-hand with bikini-clad twins, guys should note that all Coors really offers is cold cans and bottles.

You’d think this would be obvious, but visual media don’t want you to think.

Media Literacy does.

So, as I say, I have been trying to get my elected representatives, Rep. Nolan and Sen. Ginny Burdick to put Media Literacy on this session's legislative agenda. I have included Rep. Larry Galizio of Tigard because I know him and have reason to believe might be interested. We both teach media awareness at Portland Community College.

At least Galizio responded to one e-mail, though he basically passed the buck and has not been heard from since.

So far Burdick might as well be dead.

Last Wednesday I received evidence of life in Nolan’s office when this e-mail arrived.

Rick,

Please forgive the late response to your earlier e-mail. Representative Nolan was in between staff for much of December and I'm afraid that your e-mail fell through the cracks when I took over. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

I have printed out both of your e-mails and will pass them on to Representative Nolan and she will get back to you later this week.

Best,

Marah Hall
Legislative Assistant
Representative Nolan


“Later this week” was last week.

Two readers of the Red Electric have suggested that I phone these solons. This week I will, but please note, dear readers, that if legislators are going to invite e-mails (and they do), they should be prepared to respond to them.

In the meantime, if you bump into Nolan or Burdick, you might tell them to “call home.”

The number is (503) 245-7821.

Silence from Salem

Perhaps someone with inside knowledge can tell me how to get the attention of my two state representatives, Sen. Ginny Burdick and Rep. Mary Nolan.

I have now e-mailed them twice, on Dec. 6 and on Jan. 20, about the need for media literacy legislation to help our children learn how to critically assess media messages.

At least two other states in the union have such legislation.

The second time I wrote, I even pointed out two Oregon bills that had been submitted back in the 2001 session but died there. Their language would give us a leg up on drafting legislation for this session.

All I have received for my efforts is stone silence.

Now that the Democrats are in power (I’m a registered Democrat, by the way), do my elected representatives feel they can turn their backs on their constituents?

Another state representative I have tried to enlist in this effort is Larry Galizio. Larry and I teach media at Portland Community College. We have talked about the need to make young people aware of the impact of media on their lives. Indeed, that is exactly what our PCC courses set out to do.

Larry has been slightly more receptive to my appeals—but not much.

A little political history is in order.

When he was first elected to the House in 2004, Larry narrowly won in his suburban Tigard district, and he joined the powerless Democratic minority. When I approached him about the legislation in early 2005, he said that he wouldn’t be of any help as the Republicans didn’t want him to accomplish anything that would help get him re-elected.

I bought that argument, although it did occur to me that he could have promoted the legislation and modestly given credit to a Republican.

Republicans, I have reason to believe, also want their kids to view media critically and selectively. This is not a partisan issue.

Anyway, last fall, the political landscape shifted. Larry was re-elected handily and became an important part of the majority,

So I figured he would be the perfect go-to legislator.

Silly me.

Credit where credit is due: after my e-mail earlier this month, he got right back to me.

But here’s what he wrote:

Rick,

Have you contacted your Representative or Senator yet?

As Chair of the Ways & Means Sub (committee) I'm hesitant to introduce legislation that has a fiscal impact and isn't necessarily supported by the Education community. The DOE, OEA, AFT, etc....are all wary of unfunded mandates.

If you are unsuccessful with your Rep. & Senator, contact me ASAP as the deadline for filing fast approaches.

Larry

I wrote back that there needn’t be any funds involved. All I want is a volunteer commission on Media Literacy to get things rolling. And I informed him I had contacted Nolan and Burdick and heard not a peep from them. But I vowed I would do try again. I added that I would be happy to lobby for the legislation.

So I wrote Nolan and Burdick for the second time. As far as I can tell they are down there in Salem doing everything but answering their constituents’ mail.

Not that I buy Galizio’s tepid response. It sounds too much like buck-passing.

Meanwhile, all this is almost enough to inspire me to find a legislative candidate whose first pledge would be to answer constituents’ mail.

Former U.S. House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill once famously wrote, “All politics is local.”

Now I’m not so sure. To me, right now, “All politics is personal.”

Memo to state lawmakers from a voter

Back on Dec. 6, I e-mailed three state legislators about concerns I want addressed.

Two, Sen. Ginny Burdick and Rep. Mary Nolan, represent me and probably you if you live in southwest Portland.

The third is Rep. Larry Galizio, D-Tigard, who happens to be a teaching colleague at PCC. Larry and I share many concerns about media's influence on us and our children.

In the past these three, all Democrats, had limited power to accomplish much, but now all are in the majority. In this session of the Legislature, they have real power.

That's one of the reasons I wrote them. I'd like some action, please.

I want the Legislature to set up a commission to implement media literacy education in our schools. Instituting a volunteer Media Literacy Commission would cost nothing.

I also wanted to know why the state isn't enforcing highway beautification on I-5 between Portland and Salem. Thumbing its nose at the public, Jobdango is using the public right of way as a free-fire zone for illegal billboards.

The result of my letter-writing? After a month, nothing. Not a word.

I'm sure that Salem legislators get a lot of mail, indeed they have set up a computer-generated system to invite it. Now they need a human system to deal with it, or at the very least acknowledge it.

It's time for these three, and no doubt others, to get back to basics: namely communicating with those who put them in office in the first place.