On the one hand, you can sign a petition about Darfur — but will George Bush or Nancy Pelosi read it? Write to John Kerry or Duval Patrick about toll increases on the Pike — will they call you back?

But here in Newton, stop the mayor in the grocery store, corner an alderman on the bench at a Little League game, grab the arm of a passing School Committee member while walking the dog, and they cannot run far. No, at the local level, the elected officials who can most affect your daily life are before you to embrace, to yell at, to discuss something with, to lobby. Someone in authority and in the flesh will learn your thoughts about the potholes in front of your house and the construction costs for your high school. Here is where the action is — on the street where you live.

I recently asked one of our aldermen how I might best impact the discussion on Newton North High School, and the response was short and sweet: “Get your friends and family to write to all members of the board. We respond well to citizen pressure.” Another one said, “Get on the phone and start dialing, and get hundreds of your friends to do so, too.”

Dear School Committee Member: I understand that you will accept no compromise regarding the high level of facilities and staffing requested for the new high school. But if the new plan costs as much as projections suggest, staff will surely be cut. For that matter, a wing or two of the building, and a program like Vocational Tech, may be eliminated, too. However, if you would think outside the box on Site Plan 5A, one of the alternatives being discussed may prove to save enough money for NNHS to have all of the programs and staffing you advocate for. Please ask your colleagues and the mayor to seriously consider alternative designs, like the Large Hybrid, or the Mark Sangiolo plan. Your own mission of educational excellence is in jeopardy with the present plan.

Dear Mayor Cohen: What is your Plan B if the financing for the current NNHS falls through? This is a very real possibility. The $46.5 million in state money will come only if there is an approved financing plan in place. There is strong voter resistance to approving an override and, by my figuring, NNHS payments will represent the value of half of the override request. No override, no state money, and then where are we? Will we pay for a $200+ million school by ourselves? Not likely! Please tell us your Plan B, and do it right away before you build any more!

Dear Aldermen: In speaking with my neighbors, friends and other fellow residents of Newton, it has become clear what the consensus thinking is — voters will either give the city the new, palatial Newton North High School, or some form of override. Not both. If this is truly so, what will you choose? If it is true that construction of the 5A plan will translate to the failed-override horror story that Jeffrey Young and David Cohen have warned of (the loss of 100 teaching positions, the closing of a full fire company, no more branch libraries, cuts in the police and every other department in the city, limited opportunities to upgrade other city buildings including elementary schools), is 5A justified? Don’t say you have no power. You can inform the mayor now, before he spends more of our money, that you will not authorize the higher funding amount he needs to build the school. We’ll need a redesign, but at least we might be able to pay for it. So what is more important for Newton — this gleaming new school, or everything else? What choice can you defend to your constituents?

If anything I just wrote resonates with you, or exasperates you, or troubles you, or keeps you up at night, then make your sentiments known to your elected officials. We’ve heard it from the aldermen themselves: They respond to citizen pressure!

Drop this newspaper now and call, e-mail or write. There is not much time left to act and let you opinions be known, because work is beginning on this school — you know, the expensive one. The one that will suck money from staffing and programs, in every department across the city, for the next 30 years.

Here is the contact information you need:

… Better yet, why don’t you run out to Starbucks, and collar an alderman, a school committeeman or two. Express yourself in a very loud voice, so those sitting around you will hear the topic and weigh in as well. This can work because in Newton, like Tip O’Neill said, politics really is local.

Steve Siegel (spsiegel@aol.com) lives and works in Newton, and can often be found in local coffee shops stalking our elected officials.