Just going to get in here and say this - Anytime I've heard members of government talking about public involvement (and this has been from Australian polies and at least one American), whenever they're asked about this sort of thing, always state that actual, physical snail-mail letters are far and away the most effective way of getting your voices heard. It's very easy to click a button on an e-petition, but that same ease means they tend to get ignored. If this is something that really matters to you, bust open Word, write a few lines, stick a stamp on it and post it off. It's worth a dozen emails and a thousand clicks on an e-petition. 
FWIW, the e-mails included my real name and my occupation (e.g., where I go to school), or enough to establish that I'm a real person. But yes, you're right.
Unfortunately, sending them mail is not as easily accomplished as it might sound. Members of Congress typically have four different offices (listed on their webpages), and while their office in Washington, DC is presumably the main one (or at least their official one), whether a letter sent there will actually reach their office in a reasonable amount of time seems iffy, given that the holiday season (meaning heavy mail traffic) begins shortly, there might still be recovery from last month's nor'easter (see the quote below), security screening and who knows what else.
But it's worth a try. I'll give their offices a call sometime soon, and assuming I can get a response from a human, I'll explain my reason for calling and see if there's a realistic chance of their receiving a letter.
Although mail delivery to the United States Capitol offices has resumed, the delivery process is still very slow and not yet back to normal. Until the mail process is more timely, the best way to contact me or my Washington, DC staff remains either by phone or via the contact form on this page.
