Gary,
 
Thank you for the repeat of your article.  It is a needed perspective as most of
us were posturing for effect and overstating for gain (I include myself here but I
noticed Marlo has also softened, qualified, explained some of his earlier
statements).
 
To Ross and those looking for ways of DOING something, I offer one idea that may
help any organized effort to affect laws or regulations and keep them rational.
Bear with me a moment as I go off topic.
 
In this state THE issue is water.  Everything we do eventually revolves around
this central issue and as we continue to grow it will become more and more
critical.  This is often a difficult thing for newcomers to our state to grasp as
it is for those in states with water aplenty.  But consider, we will have to make
a choice this summer between water for farmer's irrigation (their very life),
water to keep an endangered subspecies of the silvery minnow afloat (its life),
water we owe to Texas and Mexico (yes owe, we have to let water go by us that we
need to keep a compact with people downstream), and water we are pumping from the
ground with no replenishment for urban use (much of which we use to pay the
earlier mentioned debt).  Any legislative action of this issue is very, very
important to several groups who want an input into the legislative process but
cannot afford to sit all day every day while innumerable subjects get bantered
about.  Our legislature (and if we are doing it in New Mexico, I can't imagine a
state that isn't) puts all legislative activity on the internet.  I monitor this
and periodically do key word searches to get copies of every bit of legislation
that has anything to do with water.  This pile of stuff is condensed and
summarized (which, thankfully I do not have to do) and sent to some 2,500
individuals and groups who are interested.  They can then take action if parts of
the proposed legislation are counterproductive to whatever their big interest in
life is.  For us, on Conch-L it would be how these proposed laws would affect
shell collecting, or marine environmental stability, or whatever.
 
This is a laborious task at times because if you haven't read through pages upon
pages of legal garbage, oops I mean proposed legislation, you haven't met real
boredom.  But this stuff is important and here is a means of keeping in touch.
This great electronic tool called the web or the internet can bring back
representative government in ways approaching the town hall meeting.  This could
be done for every state (I assume -- yeah, I know what assume means).  In this
manner, a list like the incredible web page Bill Frank just started for Florida
legislation and regulations (http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/wfrank/guide.htm)
that concerned shells collecting could be kept up to date.  This could be done for
every state but it does require someone to do the initial digging and then someone
to write up and distribute a TIMELY list of the current legislative actions.  By
the way, I also check for legislation in my state on others areas of personal
interest like native reptiles and amphibians, fossils, land shells, etc.
 
The biggest problem with staying abreast of this type of legislation is the
plethora of international, federal, state, city, and county agencies involved.  To
get some idea of the complexity in just one state, again look at Bill Frank's new
web page.
 
Okay, okay, I got a bit long with this one but, just trying to be positive.
 
Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA