JANUARY 19, 2003: In anticipation of the President’s "State of the Union" message, members and friends of First Mennonite Church (Allentown) have joined with many others in protest of preparations for war with Iraq. Each of us has sent a packet of rice to President George Bush, with a simple message which reflects our heritage as peace makers in the tradition of Jesus of Nazareth, "If your enemies are hungry, feed them" -- Romans 12:20. Please send this rice to the people of Iraq; do not attack them."
Not only our religious heritage, but also the history of many nations and our own experience leads us to believe that any form of violence--let alone war--can never be an effective deterrent to violence. Rather, we have witnessed time and again the power of non-violent resistance and undeserved kindness to our enemies to overcome the evil intentions of others. Does non-violent resistance always end violence? Not always. But does violence overcome violence? Never!
If the goal of the United States is to end the tyrannical rule by Saddam Hussein, why have we maintained an embargo against Iraq which has resulted in the deaths of more that one million innocent civilians, in itself an act of terrorism? Why are we preparing military operations which will undoubtedly kill tens of thousands more? And why does our government continue to pursue a war which will make us more vulnerable to international terrorism, and which continues to divert economic resources away from essential community services here at home?
The majority of Americans understand the folly of our current plans for war, but the President cannot hear us yet; let us keep speaking until he can no more pretend not to hear us!
A letter to President Bush containing a white substance, later determined to be rice, sent city, county and federal authorities scrambling to a post office
box on Union Boulevard in Allentown Tuesday morning.
Authorities at first suspected they had a hazardous material situation on their hands, said Chief Inspector David M. Howells Jr. of the Allentown Police
Department.
"They identified it as a non-hazardous material pretty quickly," Howells said.
"It was determined the envelope contained rice," he said.
A mailman emptying a letter box at 2102 Union Blvd. became suspicious of a letter when something spilled out of it, Howells said.
City police, firefighters, Lehigh County Emergency Management Director John Conklin, a U.S. postal inspector and the FBI converged on the scene, Howells
said.
Alana Babio of Allentown said she saw the mailman with the package.
"He said it was a suspicious package, don't come over here," said Babio.
Daniel Manzano of Allentown said he saw the letter being turned over to police.
"They parked there, they collected the evidence, they put it in the red biohazard bag and they put it in the evidence collection van," he said.
In addition to the rice, the envelope contained a letter, Howells said. He did not know the contents of the letter.
He said the envelope stuffed with rice may have been part of "some kind of movement going on sending food to the president urging him to send food to other
nations."