Years ago, while running an Army newspaper in Vietnam, I saw that we were coming up on our unit’s birthday and I sent a Telex to the Pentagon suggesting that they send a birthday greeting to the troops that we could run in the paper. They agreed and asked me to draft it, which I did.

They got the message, sent it back to us over the general’s signature, and we printed it. Then the division commander called me in and said he was pleased and flattered by the Pentagon’s attention. “Yes,” I said. And it was so well written. So he asked me to draft a personal letter of thanks that he could send back to Washington. “Of course, sir,” I said.

Last week I tried to send a message to Rep. Chellie Pingree, our representative to Congress, and I was told to fill out a structured message form, which I suspect will be screened and digested by a computer bot. I expect a reply in bot-ish, if at all. I have no other way to make my voice heard. Our machines are talking to each other these days, much as I was writing messages for both sides of the correspondence, back and forth in the middle of a war.

This is not democracy, and I implore Rep. Pingree to listen to the real people of her constituency at this crucial moment in the history of America.

Christopher Burns
Brunswick