BarkingDogs.net

All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.
~ Edmund Burke

The Strategies and Interventions Section
Welcome - Roll up your sleeves - Get busy

Introduction

Quiet insurgents, also known as noise partisans, are differentiated from other anti-noise activists by the belief that our right to live in quiet homes can only be achieved through a comprehensive effort that includes an assertive, out-of-channels campaign that combines education and agitation with the systematic shaming of public officials in order to keep up a steady pressure, as a means of forcing those in government to live up their obligation to protect the public health by defending the acoustic integrity of our homes.

This section will tell you how you can join in and, with as little as five minutes of effort each week, you can force your local authorities to take steps to ensure that we can all enjoy the right to live in homes that are free of externally-generated noise, force-fed in from the outside.

The first rule of anti-noise activism

How the game is played

Why the out-of-channels approach is a must

The wisdom of pursuing efficient interventions

What not to say

The art of binding government officials with information
Our chronic noise epidemic exists because, in their ignorance, those in power have mistakenly classified this devastating threat to the public health as a minor irritant that is unworthy of government attention. However, the law mandates that government officials must safeguard the public health. Therefore, by offering incontrovertible proof that noise is a pathogen that threatens the public health, you place your local government officials in a position where, at least in terms of legal theory, they must take action to bring your noise problem to an end.

Using the Symptoms and Side Effects Poster as an agent of change
There may be no better way to convey the dangers of noise than to present your local public officials with an eye-opening copy of our well-researched poster: The Symptoms and Side Effects of Force-Feeding Noise into the Domestic Environment. This link will take you to the noise chart subsection, where, along with various support documents and explanatory pages, you will find a complimentary copy of the noise chart that is ready to be printed out and distrubuted to everyone in your area whom you wish to render noise literate.

Email as a tool for change
This page tells you how, with just an investment of ten or fifteen minutes each week, you can use your email application as a tool with which to pry the pro-noise lobbyists loose from your local representatives long enough to force them to pass effective laws that will ensure your right to a quiet home.

Using the telephone as a weapon with which you can wage the war for change
Being intrusive in nature and more difficult to simply ignore than a letter or an email, the telephone can be a powerful, highly efficient tool for forcing your local government officials to protect the public health by reining-in the barking epidemic and doing something about the behavior of your noisy neighbor.

Project Vote Smart
If you cannot get satisfaction by working through your local government officials, then, it may be time to take take your complaint to a higher level. If you live in the United States, you can locate your state and federal representatives simply by going to the link, above, and typing in your nine-Digit Zip Code. If you do not know your full nine-digit zip code, just click here to go to a site where you can access your complete code simply by typing in your address.

How to use the Freedom of Information Act to prove that your local noise laws are not being enforced
This page will tell you how to use the Freedom of Information Act to force the authorities in your town to release the facts and figures showing how many barking complaints have been filed with the powers-that-be, and how many citations have been written to owners with noisy dogs. Once you have the data there before you in black and white, it will almost certainly prove to your eyes what your ears have been telling you all along, that your local authorities are not even trying to enforce your city's unenforceable barking laws. Having such evidence in hand could prove to be an essential element as you begin to press your elected representatives for the elimination of intrusive noise from your home.

The Noise America plan for lobbying against noise in the traditional manner
Although this website adheres to the belief that noise reform can be best achieved by working out of channels, out of respect for those who prefer a more traditional approach, we offer this link to Noise America, which is a fine organization with an action plan you can plug in to address your noise problems in a manner that is less rebellious and markedly less abrasive.

This page is the Index of the Strategies component of Section Eight:
which is the Activist section of barkingdogs.net