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How to Use the Email Page

Also read our our privacy and anti-spam policy if you want to know how your email and mailing addresses will be kept private if you choose to send them to us.

How to Use the Email Page

Using the email page is easy:
  1. Fill in your name and address.
  2. Select the state you live in (so the emails or letters will be addressed to the correct senators and governor).
  3. To create an email message:
    • Click the "Create Email" button.
    • Nav2, Nav3, IE3, and IE4 users: click the link to show the boilerplate text, and copy and paste it into the email message body. (In Nav4 this happens automatically.)
    • Remember to send the message!
  4. To create a form letter:
    • Click the "Create Form Letter to Print" button; it will open a window with a form letter.
    • To print the letter, choose File-->Print from each window's "File" pulldown menu.
If you're worried about typing your name and address into an Internet form, or if you want to create generic form letters for your friends to send, read on.

Why This Site Can't Get Your Email or Mailing Address Without Your Permission

Basically, the security model built in to browsers prevents sites from reading the contents of a form (like your name and address) until the user clicks a "Submit" button. The HTML page and the JavaScript code it contains are downloaded to your computer and stay there. Nothing can be "uploaded" back to the site without your permission.

When you send an email message to an elected official like the President, the email message is sent from your computer to the elected official's site. It does not go through StopBadTherapy.com on the way.

So, even if you type in your name and address on this form and send emails to the elected officials, we won't receive your address. Your privacy is maintained. No one receives your email address or your mailing address except the person you send them to.

Note: since we are trying to be fully open about privacy issues, we should mention that when you send anyone email over the Internet, it "hops" along servers that are located between your computer and the recipient's computer. No one can predict which servers a given email will pass through. Theoretically, if one of those servers along the way were "snooping" and intercepting emails and your email happened to pass through that server, the server could read your email as it passed the email along. However, such "snooping" is generally against the policy of the universities and Internet Service Providers which provide this email relay service. Also, even if a server wanted to snoop, it couldn't predict what emails it was going to receive, so it would receive little or no information of interest to whoever set the server up. As a result, most people don't worry too much about this essentially theoretical risk. If this risk bothers you, use this site to create and print a form letter and send the letter through the U.S. mail. It's against the law to intercept and read other people's physical mail.

How to Send Email Without Typing Your Name and Address Into This Form

If you still don't want to type your name and address into the form (even after you've read Why This Site Can't Get Your Email or Mailing Addresses Without Your Permission), that's fine. Follow these steps:
  1. Leave the "name and address" field blank.
  2. Select the state you live in (so the form emails will be addressed to the correct senators and governor).
  3. Click the "Create Email" buttons.
  4. Remember to type your name and address directly into each email message, or you will be ignored!

How to Create and Print a Personalized Form Letter to Mail

If you would prefer to send your letter by U.S. mail instead of email, follow these steps:
  1. Fill in your name and address.
  2. Select the state you live in (so the form letters will be addressed to the correct senators and governor).
  3. Click the "Create Form Letter to Print" buttons; each one will open a window with a form letter.
  4. To print the letters, choose File-->Print from each window's "File" pulldown menu.

How to Create and Print a Form Letter Without Typing Your Name and Address Into This Form

If you want to send a letter but are still nervous about typing your name and address into a form on the Internet, do this:
  1. Leave the "name and address" field blank.
  2. Select the state you live in (so the form letters will be addressed to the correct senators and governor).
  3. Click the "Create Form Letter to Print" buttons; each one will open a window with a form letter.
  4. To print the letters, choose File-->Print from each window's "File" pulldown menu.
  5. Make sure to write your return address on the letter or envelope.

How to Create a Generic Form Letter for Your Friends to Copy and Mail

If you have friends who would like to send mail to their elected officials but don't have Internet access, you can use this page to create and print a form letter which they can copy and send through the U.S. mail. It's easy:
  1. Leave the "name and address" field blank.
  2. Select the state your friend lives in (so the form letters will be addressed to the correct senators and governor).
  3. Click the "Create Form Letter to Print" buttons; each one will open a window with a form letter.
  4. To print the letters, choose File-->Print from each window's "File" pulldown menu.
  5. Remind your friends to write their return addresses on the letters or envelopes.

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