You guys gotta try Resistbot!
Also, we all should be reading more Teen Vogue, for real. Last week, this mag featured an article about a tool called Resistbot, and it sounded interesting so I bookmarked it and promptly forgot about it until sippin on a hot toddy last night after putting kiddo to bed at the end of a particularly patience-draining day of another kind of resistance (i.e., preschooler to mother about EVERYTHING). I was scrolling through my bookmarks and whoa, hold up, you can text a message through Resistbot and it will fax it to your reps for you?
Yep. Resistbot is a thing. I just used it to fax Casey and Toomey about (again) opposing the new healthcare monstrosity legislation.
Here’s how it works: You text RESIST to 50409. You immediately get a text back that greets you and asks for your full name and zip code so Resistbot can identify your representatives and text them to you. Then you are prompted to text the message you would like to send to those representatives, one sentence at a time. Resistbot will ask “Anything else to add?” in between your sentences, and when you are done and finally reply “no” to that question, Resistbot will text your full message back for you to proofread. Once you confirm that your message looks good and give Resistbot permission to send, you will receive a text with images of your professionally formatted faxes, and then another text once faxing is complete.
I was super excited to learn about Fax Zero a few months ago, because here’s the thing. Congressional staffers can refuse to empty voice mailboxes or even throw away our postcards and letters before they reach our legislators, but they can’t just not turn on the fax machine. Plus, we’re using our representatives’ resources by faxing. If you can’t call, fax or send letters. If you’re short on time, well, do you have 3 minutes to text?
I’m doing this every day. Probably more than once a day. Please try it and let me know what you think in the comments!
another writing mom 
Weirdly, I could never get the process to work on my flip phone. I’d get as far as “Anything else to add?”, text “no”, and hear nothing back until the next time Resistbox texted me to ask if I wanted to send a new fax. I honestly didn’t know whether I was just flubbing the commands, so THANK YOU for specifically stating that “no” is the Word of Command for having finished your fax message!
I only now discovered that Resistbot is also on facebook! I was able to successfully interact with Resistbot over Facebook Messenger, and now my senator has gotten a fax from me about the mystery health care bill advancing through the Senate. Won’t be the last time he hears from me, either. Thank you!
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