Do Protest Postcards Work?

It is a common thought.

Sitting in homes, a few thousand miles from a blasphemy or an attack on Catholic morality, many wonder if postcards have any results.

Are these postcards meaningless?

Rest assured, they can be quite effective.

Postcard protests have all but stopped plays like Corpus Christi and The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told.

Another telling example was the unrelenting debate over the Vermont civil unions law.

In March, 2004, we began distributing hundreds of thousands of flyers around the country protesting a same-sex civil union bill in the Vermont State Legislature.

The flyer had two postcards: one addressed to the President of the Vermont Senate and the other to the Speaker of the House. Through considerable debate, the bill narrowly became law. Most thought the battle had been lost.

"O ye of little faith" the adage goes. Seven months later, Vermont legislators have not let the issue die. The House has just passed a measure which unequivocally states "gay" marriage is not legal in Vermont.

The bill extends the marriage statutes to outlawing man-to-man and woman-to-woman unions and limits discussion of homosexual topics in schools.

Republicans captured an outright majority in the House for the first time in fourteen years largely because of opposition to the civil union law.

It was grassroots reaction that kept this issue in the forefront of controversy, a telltale sign that hard-hitting postcards were right on target.