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| Netlore Archive: Although some of the historical claims in this email flier are subject to doubt, the Rice for Peace campaign is authentic | |||
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Email example contributed by T. Meyer, 30 Jan 2003:
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Subject: Fwd: FW: Another option in addition to calls and letters This amazing idea came from the Boulder Mennonite Church: 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,
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. 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. |
Comments: Although some of the historical claims in this email flier are subject to doubt, the Rice for Peace campaign is authentic, launched in January 2003 by Stirling Cousins of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, an offshoot of the Boulder Mennonite Church in Colorado. In statements to the press, Cousins has said she hopes to "inundate" President Bush with bags of rice.
As stated in the email, the 2003 rice protest was inspired by a similar program begun in 1954 by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an international, interfaith peace organization founded in 1914. Participants in the Surplus Food for China campaign were urged to mail small bags of grain to President Eisenhower labeled "If Thine Enemy Hunger, Feed Him — Send Surplus Food to China." Over 40,000 bags were distributed for mailing, according to the FOR, most of which ultimately arrived at the White House along with "numerous" letters and petitions. However, the claim that President Eisenhower was personally aware of the 1954 protest and adjusted his China policy accordingly remains undocumented apart from anecdotal testimony.
A White House spokesman interviewed by the Denver Rocky Mountain News declined to say if or how many packets of rice have been received by the Bush administration, but addressed the aims of the peace campaign as follows: "The president welcomes the fact that there are those in a democracy who can express their views and let their government know how they feel about important issues facing their country — unlike Iraq, where people are not free to make their feelings known."
News updates:
Postal Service Fights with 'Rice for Peace' Packages
9 Feb 2003 — "Rice is nice, but not when it’s exploding all over the post office. A nationwide mail campaign involving rice and the possible war in Iraq is causing headaches for the U.S. Postal Service..."Police Visit Woman Who Mailed Rice to Protest War
12 Feb 2003 — "Raleigh postal workers flagged the package because it had excessive postage and a granular substance inside and then alerted police. Raleigh officers, during a time of heightened terrorist alerts, wanted someone to check out the return address and called Chapel Hill police."Envelope of Rice Causes Post Office Evacuation
15 Feb 2003 — "Even though Boston isn't on the list of suspected terrorist targets this weekend, the heightened alert has frayed the nerves of so many in this seat of American patriotism that an envelope of rice, mistaken for anthrax yesterday at Faneuil Hall, sent people running for the exits."
Sources and further reading:
RiceforPeace.org
Home page of the Rice for Peace campaignRocky Mountain Peace & Justice Center
Home page of the campaign's sponsorBoulder Activist Hopes Rice Effort Will Influence Bush
Boulder Daily Camera, 21 January 2003Rice for Peace: Origin of the Idea in 1954
Fellowship of Reconciliation documentCry for Peace Heard on Web
Denver Rocky Mountain News, 8 February 2003
Last updated: 02/12/03
