Edible Protest

[TheSerf]

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

Place ½ cup of 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”

Place the paper and bag of rice in an envelope (either letter-size or padded mailing envelope) and adress it to:

The Prime Minister John Howard
House Of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
[or the adress of the political leader of your country]

Drop this in the mail. It is important to act NOW so that Prime Minister Howard gets the letters ASAP.

In order for this protest to be effective, there must be hundreds of thousands of such rice deliveries to the Prime Minister. We can do this if you each copy this message and send it to your friends, family and email mailing lists.

There is a positive history to this protest:
In the 1950’s a similar protest began in the USA. The protest is credited with influencing President Eisenhower against attacking China. The story goes:
In the mid 1950’s, 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 10 years, the campaign was an abject failure. The president did not acknowledge receipt of the bags publicly; certainly, no rice was 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 over two islands, Quemoy and Matsu. The generals twice recommended the use of nuclear weapons and each time, President Eisenhower turned to his aide and asked about 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.

[MarijuanaClock]

Cool.

[thedirtiestjamocan]

Well damn, I think that it should be the "feed thine me" campaign. Here, I'll announce it right now:

I HEREBY DECLARE MYSELF THE SECOND EMPEROR OF THE UNITED STATES AND PROTECTER OF MEXICO AND I'M GONNA BOMB THE SHIT OUT OF EVERY COUNTRY IN THE EASTERN HEMISPHERE.

Now don't be stingy with the rice, and don't over-package it either -- I'm hungry now...

[Ted-Easton]

I'll eat it for you before I package it. It'll save you time later.

[Big-Boss-Man]

At 2/17/03 03:26 AM, MarijuanaClock wrote: Cool.

I wanted to answer with the same word!

Cool!

[b3nnic3]

cool.....

[JMHX]

I'll be Cool #4