Some flickerings of good news

I have received the following message from Phil Alperson, a legislative
assistant to Chris Van Hollen, the Congressman from the Eighth District
of Maryland.  I give only the very short sentence which is the relevant
excerpt:

----- Forwarded message from "Alperson, Phil" <[email protected]> -----

Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 16:40:44 -0500
From: "Alperson, Phil" <[email protected]>
Subject: you called
To: [email protected]
X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2656.59)

	.  .  .  .  .  .  .

The Congressman plans to relay the proposal your submitted to Rep. Larson,
ranking Democrat on the House Administration Committee.

PHIL ALPERSON
Legislative Director
Congressman Chris Van Hollen (MD-8th)
Montgomery and Prince George's Counties
1419 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC    20515
202 225 5341 (phone)
202 225 0375 (fax)
 <http://www.house.gov/vanhollen/> http://www.house.gov/vanhollen/

----- End forwarded message -----

The proposal I submitted is, of course, the plan that the client software 
supported by the House Information Resources(HIR) --in other words the
software which enables the US House of Representatives to access the
outside world but still have their internal communications be protected --
should be ported to Linux.

This is at least a beginning of a substantial journey . . . but at least
it has begun.  I would like to ask everyone here who thinks it a good
idea that Linux be treated equally with M$ and Macintoshes to take a
short moment to write Mr Van Hollen to congratulate him and to urge him
on.  It would be best to write your note to Mr Van Hollen, but send it
to Mr Alperson, asking him to forward it.  As most of you know and all of
you can imagine, an E-mail direct to Van Hollen will get lost; but the
letter addressed to Alperson won't be.

I know it goes against the grain to congratulate a Congresscritter for
anything<g> . . . but this case is IMHO a deserving exception.

Thanks and best wishes,

Alan

-- 
Alan McConnell :  http://patriot.net/users/alan
    "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"  Actually there is a good web site:
    http://www.PantsOnFire.net  .    Check it out!