Word: contend
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Direct-mail practitioners counter that their product is the solution, not the problem. Mail-order shopping helps the environment, they argue, by keeping consumers out of cars, saving gas and motor oil and reducing air pollution. On the issue of privacy, they contend that direct mail is the least intrusive way to reach consumers. "It's not like a commercial where you have to wait a whole minute for the evening news to continue, or a billboard that blocks the scenery, or the telephone call that gets you out of the bathtub," says copywriting maestro Bill Jayme of Sonoma, Calif...
Proponents contend that direct mail is the most efficient way to organize and rally support for public causes. "How else do you communicate with people?" asks Peter Bahouth, executive director of Greenpeace USA. "For better or worse, it's the lifeblood of the community." Advocates argue that direct mail actually fosters democracy. "It is a very decentralizing force," says Roger Craver of Falls Church, Va., who raises money through the mails for liberal causes. "In many ways, it has revolutionized American politics...
...Critics contend that little of that outpouring went for its authorized purpose: to enable elected officials to conduct a dialogue with constituents. Most of it, they argue, went to help incumbents consolidate their hold on power. The outcry has given rise to some reforms. House and Senate members up for re-election are prevented from issuing mass mailings just prior to elections. This year the Senate prohibited members from transferring individual franking allocations to colleagues, and the House agreed to restrict franking funds to about $180,000 for each representative...
...defeated almost 2 to 1. A second measure, Forests Forever, designed to ban clear-cutting and save old-growth forests and redwoods, lost by a narrower margin. In part they fell victim to a backlash against the sheer number of ballot propositions -- 28 in all -- that Californians had to contend with in the voting booth. "They voted no on everything," laments Lynn Sadler, campaign director for Forests Forever. Big Green was a ballot buster all by itself, a 16,000-word laundry list of aims, including a ban on cancer-causing pesticides, a phase-out of chemicals that deplete...
...Washington also seems genuinely undecided on some points, notably when and on what evidence it might conclude that the embargo has failed and war should be the next step. Some experts insist that the sanctions are working; others contend it will take months to a year or more before their effect is felt. Who really knows? And are they saying what they know...