Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] Fwd: How to protest on Iraq

Kate Parker Adams kate@dnki.net
Sat, 01 Feb 2003 20:54:46 -0500


>Date: Sat, 01 Feb 2003 19:19:33 -0500
>From: Paul Pintus <pintus@gis.net>
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.74 [en] (Win98; U)
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>To: Cornerstone Friends <cstone-friends@cscoho.org>
>Subject: How to protest on Iraq
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>Reply-To: Paul Pintus <pintus@gis.net>
>List-Id: "Cornerstone Friends list" <cstone-friends.cornerstonecohousing.org>
>
>@@@  To   Friends of Cornerstone Village Cohousing
>@@@  From Paul Pintus <pintus@gis.net>
>
>I am sending this along because of the large interest I believe we share
>regarding the current state of affairs.
>
>   Place 1/2 c. uncooked rice in a small plastic bag (a snack-sized bag
>or
>   sandwich bag work fine).
>
>   Squeeze out excess air and seal the bag.
>
>   Wrap it in a piece of paper on which you have written "If your enemies
>
>   are hungry, feed them (Romans 12:20). Please send this rice to the
>people
>   of Iraq; do not attack them."
>
>   Place the paper and bag of rice in an envelope (either a letter-sized
>   or small padded mailing envelope - both are the same cost to mail) and
>
>   address them to
>
>   President George Bush
>   White House
>   1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
>   Washington, DC 20500
>   Attach $1.06 in postage. (Three 37 cent stamps equal $1.11)
>
>   Drop this in the mail TODAY. It is important to act NOW so that
>   President Bush gets the letters ASAP. In order for this protest to be
>   effective, there must be hundreds of thousands of such rice deliveries
>
>   to the White House. We can do this if we all forward this message to
>our
>   friends and family. If we get the message out, there will be packets
>   from hundreds of thousands of people!
>
>   There is a positive history of this protest! Read on!
>
>   "In the mid 1950s, the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation, learning
>
>   of famine in the Chinese mainland, launched a "Feed Thine Enemy"
>   campaign. Members and friends mailed thousands of little bags of rice
>   to the White House with a tag quoting the Bible, "If thine enemy
>   hunger, feed him." As far as anyone knew for more than ten years, the
>   campaign was an abject failure. The President did not acknowledge
>   receipt of the bags publicly; certainly no rice was ever sent to
>China.
>
>   "What nonviolent activists only learned a decade later was that the
>   campaign played a significant, perhaps even determining role in
>   preventing nuclear war. Twice while the campaign was on, President
>   Eisenhower met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to consider US options
>   in the conflict with China over two islands, Quemoy and Matsu. The
>   generals twice recommended the use of nuclear weapons. President
>   Eisenhower each time turned to his aide and asked how many little bags
>
>   of rice had come in. When told they numbered in the tens of thousands,
>
>   Eisenhower told the generals that as long as so many Americans were
>   expressing active interest in having the US feed the Chinese, he
>   certainly wasn't going to consider using nuclear weapons against
>them."
>
>   From: People Power: Applying Nonviolence Theory by David
>   H. Albert, p. 43, New Society, 19.
>
>pintus@gis.net

**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**
Kate Parker Adams
Gradual Student
Environmental Epidemiology
UMass Lowell
**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**
You can't spell QUAGMIRE
without I-R-A-Q!
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