I sent email to my representatives this week expressing concern about how Anti-Terrorism Bill signed by President Bush poses extensive threats to civil liberties. Even though it was routinely editorialized by major newspapers as going too far without usual protections against abuse by policing agencies, while final bill does require judicial oversight and bill was given a four year sunset clause to end it in 2005. I expected usual replies from those officials in form of canned "Thank-you-for-sharing your-thoughts-and-concerns" email. What I got back concerns me even more!

My Senator returned an email urging me to call local office to express my feelings because . . . "As I'm sure you know, letters containing anthrax have disrupted Congress by forcing closure of House and Senate office buildings. The Capitol, however, remains open and legislative work continues." What has that to do with email Senator?

The Senator goes on . . . "Currently I've received approximately 30,000 letters and emails which, because of closure of Senate office buildings, my staff and I have been unable to open and process. Thousands of more letters are being held by Capitol Police." Sorry Senator, that doesn't fly, it falls flat an excuse for access to email.

I have an old college buddy who works for another senator who tells me he's set up at home to retrieve office emails and continues to work from there. I know flow of email has not slowed due to Anthrax and it is now an even more reliable method to reach elected representatives, as it can be retrieved from anywhere.

TOP TOOL. Any good email program will allow you to organize and filter your mail, and create standard letter templates. Eudora Pro (http://www.eudora.com/), in particular, makes light work of managing your mail at a very affordable price.

BOX CLEVER. Create a simple filing system by organising your incoming mail into folders -- this saves you valuable searching time. Examples of folders include Work, Personal, Ezines, Articles, and To Do. You can also use your email program like a Filofax storing draft messages and reminders in your Monday through Sunday or To Do folders.

DIRECT MAIL. Filters can redirect your incoming emails into specific folders. Your ezine subscriptions, for instance, can be sent straight to your Ezines folder. Automatic filtering makes it easy for you to stash, trash, or act on your mail with a minimum of fuss and time.

FILTER CLEAN. Professional email clients have a whole range of filtering options. You can command Eudora to play a "warning" sound when invoices arrive, transfer all your ezines to your "To Read" folder, or label emails from your friends and family with your favourite colour. The choices are vast.