[Peace-discuss] Fwd:[Fwd: Send rice (not bombs!]

[jencart]

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Hi Folks:

When I first read the subject line, I thought it meant to send Condoleza Rice!

My friend in Rockaway Beach sent this to me.  I plan to follow the below  directions because it is such a visible way other than flying to Washington DC  for me to make a statement to the Bush Administration.  I hope you join us and  send this message on today to your e-mail list.  This would certainly be the  antithesis of the packets of Anthrax they were worried about receiving in the mail!

For a Peaceful Planet, Diana O'Farrell

There is a grassroots campaign underway to protest war in Iraq in a very simple, but potentially powerful way.

      * Place 1/2 cup uncooked rice in a small plastic bag (a
        snack-size bag or sandwich bag works 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. It is  important to act NOW so that
        President Bush gets the letters ASAP,  preferably before the
        report from the inspectors comes out.

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, a similar
  protest 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 hungers, 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 a 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."

This amazing idea is from the Boulder Mennonite Church.