Dear MAPA (and other) Activists, The 6 month interim peace deal with Iran went into effect Monday, January 20th. This is a very positive step, but there are members of the senate who are still trying to push legislation to kill this deal! Your letters and calls to the senators are effective. Letters to the editor take our message to a wider audience. Letters to the editor are important!   --Studies show that they are among the most widely-read pieces in the press. --They are followed closely by elected officials and their staffs. --They are relatively easy to get accepted, especially in local or community papers.   Letter Drop Postponed We won't be doing our letter drop at the JFK Federal Building on Wednesday, Jan 22, after all. We will reschedule it in the future. Sorry for the confusion! DO. . .   --Always mention the elected officials you are targeting (In this case Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey) – this will ensure your letter will be noticed in their offices. --Respond to articles in the paper to which you are writing. --Try to connect with issues or views that are widely shared (i.e. No new War, Money for our communities not foreign adventures) --Be concise. --Have a community/personal angle if at all possible. --Keep trying!  If your first one isn’t accepted, further submissions may break through.  Get your friends and neighbors to write too. Here is a sample letter. Please write your own letter using one of these samples. Let us know if it is printed and in what issue. I’m concerned that we may be heading for a new war in the Middle East.  The current round of negotiations with Iran, finalized on January 20th, are the best hope of avoiding that disastrous outcome.  But some members of Congress are doing everything they can to undermine a diplomatic solution.  Senate bill 1881, which has a number of Democratic co-sponsors along with almost all the 43 Republicans, would undo much of the progress we made with Iran in 2013 by threatening more sanctions and put in place impossible conditions that would make a war much more likely.  Thankfully, neither Senator Warren nor Senator Markey have lent their support to this bill, but neither have they spoken out against it... (Click here for completed letter plus two more sample letters) You can follow the status and progress of S.1881 here: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s1881 Sincerely, Jeff Klein Iran/Mideast Task Force

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