This is a real letter. It went into the mail as is, although some names and addresses are replaced here by strings of XXXX. This is one of my better efforts. The afternoon I created this blaster, I was on a high roll. The heat was set at a high boil. That is your first Step: to decide the purpose and temper with which your letter should be written. If you don’t or can’t do this, then delay mailing your result until you have cooled off for at least three days. Then re-edit before mailing the new result. Certainly take out the scatological and profane phrases. Step Two: Decide the extent of the information to be included. Sometimes this is extensive, and means a lengthy letter. That was the case with this example, even without the four extra pages of data that I also attached. However, there is a general case to be made that most bureaucrats have an attention span slightly shorter than that of a Mayfly, and that subsequently letters should not be longer than one page in length to avoid confusing them. In this case, I was also using information and a couple of ideas from other people that really added to value of the final result. Don’t be afraid to make your letter a collaborative effort, but do be aware that others may not share your passion for your subject and that letters written by a committee commonly have the flavor and taste of school paste. Step Three: If you have decided to stick with a peppery writing style and also do not want to reduce the pointy nature of your zingers, then go for it. In for a penny, in for a pound. Sometimes the only way to get your message across is to hammer away with all you’ve got. Here it is important to deliver your message with as much power as possible. Extend your best points and arguments. I’m not going to explain here what is obvious when the letter is read. I believe that you can read between the lines if the words themselves do not carry the whole message. Step Four: Make the sale. Ask for the sale. Anytime you are asking for something, ask! Be extraordinarily crystal clear. Don’t be wishy-washy! Say what you want, and say again why you want it. Step Five: Do yourself a favor. Take the time to read your letter aloud to another person or a group. You will find errors in that way that cannot be found in any other way. You final result will be better and you may actually succeed in your goal. August 15, 2006 George B. Wallace, President Ocean View Community Development Corporation P. O. Box XXXX Ocean View, XX XXXXX (XXX) XXX-XXXX XXXXXXXXXX@XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXX, Secretary Federal Communications Commission Office of the Secretary XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Washington, D.C. XXXXX Dear XXX XXXXXX: In reference to: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX I am writing to you to specifically say the following: based on information provided to me the included population/dwelling count is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief. Now I will attempt a brief explanation. My wife and I became aware of a substandard level of Post Office service to our community as soon as we moved here in 1997. We could not get a Post Office box right away, and were placed on a waiting list to get one. We waited 18 months. Things did not improve. The waiting list got longer and longer. My wife and I wrote letters to appropriate government officials. Nothing happened. The waiting list grew to over 300, and a private mail service grew up to assist people to get their mail, at a price. One point stood out. It was apparent that all levels of government had inadequate and out of date information about our community which was drowning in a recent tidal wave of growth and development. We decided to do something about it in early 2005. My wife, Marilyn, and I were trained by the Kellog Foundation in their MIRA program, and we are active in our community. We decided that we could organize a volunteer drive-by eye-ball count of dwellings in Ocean View. Our idea is that a dwelling is a place where people live. We were more interested in people than in structures. We did organize the activity, got a dozen pairs of volunteers signed on, sent them out to drive and tally the information, and collected the data to establish a base line. Its first use was in public testimony in a legislative hearing in Honolulu concerning a Hawaii State appropriation of funds for a public water source for our community. The legislation passed and a water well is in our future. We and our volunteers like to think the numbers we provided were important to the passage of the bill We did this same work again in 2006. We think it has had a similar value in pressing the Post Office for better service, and hopefully one day soon a full service Post Office for Ocean View will arrive. A dwelling is a place where people live. In Ocean View (eight sub-divisions), it can be a lava tube, a tarp, a tent, a yurt, a trailer, a bus, a cargo container, a shack, a cabin, a house, or it might be hidden from view from the road. In the last case, we call it an active driveway. A shack is a small, generally one-room structure. A cabin has several rooms. After that, the individual volunteers had to make the decision. It takes two people to do the survey work. One to drive and look out for cars, potholes, kids and dogs. The passenger looks for the objects of our attention and makes tally marks. The real point is that we need a current yearly count that government is not ready, or able, to provide. If we want to get what we want, better government services: a water well, a real Post Office, water improvements, a solid waste transfer station, or assist in the development of an AM-FM radio station, we must provide the actual current count for them. If you don't want to trust our count, we challenge you to find the money to come to Hawaii, the Big Island, and Ocean View do your own drive by count on all 225 miles of Ocean View roads, and check our figures. Currently, the available "official" statistics that government wants to use are the numbers from the erroneous US 2000 Census. We believe we cannot allow government to hide behind those numbers to delay doing their duty to provide appropriate government services to us, the citizens, adults and children, of Ocean View. Ocean View is not a small community. It is geographically large and culturally diverse. Despite this, because we are a rural area with no other option we have learned to work together on common interests: community center, roads, park, fire station, neighborhood watch, water well, post office, and a solid waste transfer station. Other community organizations, with which OVCDC has common interests and linkages, are the Ocean View Community Association (OVCA) which operates our Community Center and the Ocean View Chamber of Commerce. The Association is currently working on Disaster Planning and Preparedness for our community. We have a major set of problems to deal with in this special instance. The first of these is basic communications. We were ecstatic to recently learn that there was some interest in finally bringing good AM-FM radio communication to Ocean View. As you are most likely not aware, stations that can be heard in Ocean View are few to none, reception is problematical, and very dependent on specific location on a house by house basis. As a result, the community has no way to contact its population in an emergency, much less to try to keep connected about local events. This isolation from events makes it more difficult for citizens to be aware of local activities and to work together to make improvements in our living conditions. Our community is now beginning the initial work of developing a local disaster plan to serve the needs of our citizens in case of hurricane, severe earthquake, or lava flow. It is our simple belief that County, State, and Federal government is not equipped, has no plan, has no desire to provide, nor has the personnel to provide emergency rescue services for our growing population. Our population is now estimated at 6,000 based on our work, and is rapidly growing. The housing creation rate and raw numbers of houses under construction are unbelievable for an area that for years rarely saw even one home built in a 12 month period.. It is already obvious to us that communication is the keystone that holds everything together. We need a local radio station to help educate our citizens, facilitate information flow, and get desperately needed emergency information to our citizens. Currently we are looking at developing a local network of low level ham radio operators that then could connect to outside authorities to arrange helicopter evacuation of the severely injured and ill, and to supply essential medications and emergency supplies. Our belief is that Ocean View is geographically so large that natural events like tree falls, and rock slides will effectively cut off many roads and create isolated pockets that cannot be contacted to get information out to get help in any other way. One event has us all worried. Lava flow. These events are usually accompanied or preceded by earthquake. The earthquakes can be, historically have been, extreme. Lava flows can happen here very quickly. Hawaii lava can be very fluid with it taking only two to three hours from upland vent to the seashore. There is no current way to warn people of such a flow advancing toward their homes. The hurricane siren system is a joke. Our preliminary survey suggests that half of the population never hears the once monthly audible tests. Many that do, don't know what it means. This kind of event simply means that under current conditions, the world will be entertained and horrified to see and read about local families killed by the advance of burning liquid rock in situations where they cannot escape. I’m sure that all the TV stations will be here with helicopter camera crews for gory and spectacular video shots. I hope some of their helicopters will of assistance is saving lives. I suspect that in the aftermath of such a disaster, and in subsequent investigations, when it is too late to save lives, questions will finally be asked as to why provisions for locals to escape were not prepared ahead of time by the various levels of government. Ocean View is not content to wait for local government officials to wake up to their duties. We have already organized an effective local volunteer Neighborhood Watch program. We are in the process of discovering, organizing, and training local volunteer resident "block captains" which would be in charge of communications for small areas of the community. Lava flow is a special problem in that it can quickly cut off the only road in both directions, leaving no escape route under current conditions. We believe that the one remaining local natural escape route that should be available to us in such an event, is missing because of lack of vision, planning and will at the County and State level. That escape route is the sea. Pohue Bay, an arc of sandy beach exists on the coastline below our community and is not accessible because the County and State have made no efforts to provide any kind of road. Indeed, it commonly seems to us that government colludes with private interests to deny us the legally mandated public access to the beach. This do nothing attitude and lack of any effort seems very short sighted to us. With effective radio station communications and sea access, a Dunkirk style emergency evacuation could at least be quickly organized for our Ocean View citizens. This appears to us to be a viable and doable solution to a major public safety problem. We think it is certainly a sensible alternative when compared to being forced into becoming fast students of Polynesian fire walking on rolling lava flows. There are more boats in Hawaii than helicopters. We have no airport, not even one for emergencies, so fixed wing aircraft would also not be available for evacuation. An AM-FM radio station in Ocean View would be of great assistance in solving many of the problems listed above. We need this public service. It means more to us than just entertainment. A radio station is an emergency news source for our citizens and is definitely a positive point in a public safety issue. Sincerely, George B. Wallace Added material #1.******************************************************** The real estate Multiple Listings Service Sales stats for Ka'u & O.V. were / are: Ka'u 2004 2005 2005 OceanView alone residential 30 139 a 400% increase ! 88 or 66.6% condo 2 8 vacant land 118 1,150 a 1,000% increase! 845 or 90% commercial 0 na business 0 na Added material #2.************************************************** Sample Count: Active driveway:______________________________________ Lava tube:__________________________________________ Tent / Tarp:__________________________________________ Yurt:_______________________________________________ Trailer:_____________________________________________ Bus & Motor Home: ___________________________________ Cargo Container:_____________________________________ Shack: _____________________________________________ Cabin: _____________________________________________ House: _____________________________________________ Under Construction: foundation: ________ framing: ________ roofing / enclosed: ___________ final finishing: _____________ lot graded & overgrown: _______________________________ freshly graded: _______________________________________ being graded: dozer on site: ____________________________ other: ______________________________________________ George B. Wallace P. O. Box 6117 Ocean View, HI 96737 808-939-8524 Added material #3.************************************************** 2006 Ocean View Dwelling Survey Results The 2006 Ocean View Dwelling Survey results are complete! Our purpose is to provide up to date statistics about Ocean View's eight subdivisions, and to give real indicators of the kind of growth we are experiencing in our community. A dwelling is a place where people live. It can be a lava tube, a tarp, a tent, a yurt, a trailer, a bus, a cargo container, a shack, a cabin, a house, or it might be hidden from view from the public road. In the last case, we call it an active driveway. A shack is a small, generally one-room structure. A cabin has several rooms. We created through our efforts a current year 2006 count that government is not ready, or able, to provide. Currently, the available "official" statistics that government wants to use are the numbers from the erroneous on completion U. S. Year 2000 Census. Some statistical hints: 2005 saw Ocean View have 88 residence sales (2/3 rds of Ka'u District sales), and 845 lots were sold (90% of Ka'u District sales). In Ka'u District for 2005 over 2004, residence sales were up 400% (30 to 139), and vacant land (lot) sales were up 1,000% (118 to 1,150). We all know that in addition to that kind of growth, a lot of new homes have also been built in Ocean View, and many more lots have been cleared, preparing for building. Here are our eyeball count results: 2005 - 2006 Ocean View Dwellings Count Results We provide these numbers in the belief that you will want to know what your efforts discovered this year. This count is from all eight subdivisions of Ocean View. 2005 - 2006 Ocean View Dwellings Count Results All of Ocean View 2005 2006 Change Active Driveways: 534 208 -326 lava tube: 2 1 -1 tents: 45 48 +3 Yurts: 4 5 +1 Travel Trailers: 12 16 +4 Bus / RV: 13 9 -4 Cargo Containers: 12 7 -5 Shacks: 242 214 -28 Cabins: 128 148 +20 Existing Houses: 1,037 1,389 +352 This is 34% growth in houses! Houses Under Construction information: (added for 2006) 200 +200 foundation: 60 framing: 52 roofing / enclosed: 30 final finishing: 58 Vacant Lots Information: Overgrown / graded: 288 415 +127 We all know it only takes a year for a newly graded lot to become overgrown in some areas. Newly Graded: 219 345 +126 This is 56% more new grading work ! Dozer on site: 11 18 +7 Thank you all who participated in this effort. Please use and share this information with anyone you wish. We regret the delay, and hope that you will find it useful and informative. Sincerely, George Wallace Added Material #4.************************************************* Add all the dwellings for a total of 2,045. Add 200 for houses under construction = 2,245. Use the Hawaii County 2.75 factor for persons per dwelling: 2,245 X 2.75 = 6,173.75 persons. March 2006 was five months ago. Construction is still going on at a record pace. More and more new faces are to be seen in our community at events. We are continuing to grow. GW
(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com
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