From My Inbox

Two e-mails from two different members of the group I traveled 'round the world with (Global Semester @ Olaf '98) that I found really interesting and inspiring. Not trying to be PC at all here.. just read some stuff that jived... First is from Mr. Johnny K, second one is a forward from Megan.

January 20, 2003


Dear Friends and Family,

I consider myself to be a pretty average American. I grew up playing Nintendo, eating Burger King, and wearing leather shoes. To many, I define the average WASP. Middle class, blonde, and Protestant, I wear khaki shorts and watch a little bit of TV almost every night. I have never considered myself leftist or right wing, communist or anarchist, and many of my family and friends are much like me: they go to bed thinking about their families and they wake up thinking about their jobs.

I am writing to you all, because I believe that there are many more Americans just like us who feel that we are not being represented by our political leadership. When we hear the resolutions of our Congress and our Executive Administration, we feel underrepresented. We care about education, health care, and the economy, and yet our government continues to threaten military action against nation after foreign nation. We wake up every morning as teachers, and students, and civil servants, and we go to bed - to the rest of the world �Eas war- mongers, and aggressors, and tyrants for the policies of our current administration.

On Saturday, January 18, 2003, over one-half-million middle class Americans just like us marched from the Capitol building to the Navy Yard in Washington DC. Although the temperatures dropped into single digits, I witnessed grandparents, families, labor unions, Muslims, Christians, and Jews demonstrate their beliefs and their rights together as Americans�End I was inspired. They weren't anarchists, or vandals, or extremists, but middle-class American families from rural, urban, and suburban communities across America. And yet, when we went home to watch the televised news, there was little or nothing reported on any of the major television networks.

I am asking you all to take a few moments and think about your own beliefs. As Americans, we are a symbol for freedom and democracy throughout the world; and yet, we have become a symbol of fear, avarice, and aggression. As I have traveled throughout the world, I have found that many people love Americans and hate American policies.�EBut, unless we take an active role in the policies of our government, the statement that foreigners hate us�Ewill become true.

There are many ways to get involved. The Internet is the fastest and most comprehensive way to communicate our beliefs over great distances and so I have posted two hyperlinks for you to check. Moreover, an equally important way to get involved is to know your neighbors. We have become a society closed in our living rooms, checking the news for polls and surveys to see what other Americans think. Imagine that, in the nation that “loves freedom�Ewe have closed ourselves in our own homes. I do not even know the neighbors that I have lived near for three years but I believe it is time to introduce myself.

In the future, I will email you more opportunities I find to get involved. Perhaps it has taken me a long time to become active, but I believe in what I saw, and in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one the greatest Americans to have ever lived, the time is always right to do the right thing. Nations are not great; people make nations great by doing great things. I believe that as Americans, we have the greatest potential on earth to do this. It is now time to use our potential.

Best wishes to you all,

John

OPPORTUNITIES TO GET INVOLVED:

http://www.internationalanswer.org/news/update/011903j18rpt.html

http://www.moveon.org



Here's the second:

Subject: The Food of Peace isn't Spam


This amazing idea 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...ovecome evil with good. Romans 12:20-21
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 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
y; 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."

Wonder if anyone would notice a bag of rice arriving at the White House from Japan?