There is a grassroots campaign underway to protest
war in Iraq in a
simple, but potentially powerful way.
Place 1/2 cup uncooked rice in a small plastic bag
(a snack-size 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 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,
preferably before the
report from the inspectors comes out on the 27th. 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 you each
forward this message to your friends and family.
> There is a positive history of this protest! In the
1950s, Fellowship of Reconciliation began a similar
protest, which is credited with
influencing President Eisenhower against attacking
China. 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
U.S. 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 U.S. feed the Chinese, he certainly
wasn't going to consider using nuclear weapons against
them."
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