AROUND HOME : Write Your Congressman

THIS PROGRAM IS for those concerned citizens who, after reading in the morning newspaper about what absurdities elected officials have committed, immediately want to register a strong dissent with their representatives.

It’s a gap that GOVERN-U.S. was made to fill. GOVERN is a standard mail-merge program with a twist. Instead of the usual data base filled the names and address of customers and subscribers, GOVERN contains the names and addresses of all members of Congress, each of the nine justices on the Supreme Court and all major officials of the executive branch (from the President to the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.)

An expanded version also includes House Committees, Senate Committees, Joint Congressional Committees, Committee Assignments and foreign embassies. Finally, in case you need to remind your representatives of the basic law of the land, GOVERN also contains copies of the Constitution of the United States and Declaration of Independence.

The way GOVERN works is simple. All you do is call up GOVERN’s standard letter form, enter the text of the letter, and GOVERN prints out a properly addressed copy to each public official you designate. (You designate a public official by placing his name in a custom mailing-list file. Thereafter, every time you write a letter, GOVERN sends out individually addressed copies to everyone on your mailing list.) If you wish, GOVERN will also address the envelopes as well.

GOVERN-U.S. is a shareware program ($3 for the basic version) available from California Freeware (805) 273-0300. If you plan to use GOVERN regularly, the publisher (Foundation for Infinite Survival Inc., of Berkeley) asks that you register your copy for $28, which also entitles you to free updates and the expanded public official data base.