Postal Service fights with ‘Rice for Peace’ packages

[Cees Binkhorst]

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http://www.postindependent.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article%3FSite=GP%26Date=
20030209%26Category=VALLEYNEWS%26ArtNo=302080007%26Ref=AR

February 9, 2003

Postal Service fights with ‘Rice for Peace’ packages

BY CARRIE CLICK
Post Independent Staff



GLENWOOD SPRINGS — 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 — and the
U.S.P.S. mail-handling facility in West Glenwood is no exception.
The “Rice for Peace” campaign was initiated in Boulder by Stirling
Cousins at the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center.
She sent e-mails to more than 200 peace organizations around the
country suggesting that anti-war protesters mail a half cup of
uncooked rice to President Bush at the White House, with a note
asking him to send food to the Iraqis instead of attacking them.
The campaign is an effort to make a personal, albeit symbolic,
statement about war.
But some of the envelopes filled with rice aren’t making it to the
White House.
Dion Helmick, supervisor at the postal service facility in West
Glenwood, said rice-filled envelopes have been coming into the
facility for a few weeks now.
“When the rice is sent in padded envelopes, it’s fine,” he said. “We
process padded envelopes by hand. They don’t run through our bar code
or automated canceling machines. But when the rice is sent in a
regular envelope, we often can’t cull it out before it gets into our
machinery.”
When that happens, envelopes containing rice can get caught in the
machines, ripping them open, tearing them apart, and spewing rice
around the facility. The rice can also get ground up in the
machinery, Helmick said, clogging the machines.
So far, there hasn’t been any permanent damage to postal service
machinery, but dealing with rice on this scale can be like the
aftermath of a bride and groom leaving their wedding.
“Last Monday was a particularly bad night,” Helmick said. “There was
rice everywhere.”
Helmick said the postal service saves as much of the mangled rice and
the envelopes it comes in, and sends damaged envelopes encased in
plastic on to the White House whenever possible.
Picking up on Cousins’ campaign, Lauren Martin, pastor at Glenwood
Mennonite Church, wrote a letter to the editor about the “Rice for
Peace” campaign, instructing readers to send rice in a regular
envelope. The letter appeared in the Glenwood Springs Post
Independent on Thursday.
“When I saw that letter, I thought, ‘Uh-oh,’” Helmick said. “It’s
time to gear up.”
When he wrote the letter, Martin didn’t know about the problem of
using regular envelopes. When he found out, he rushed to correct
the problem, visiting with Steve Cross, acting supervisor of the
Glenwood Springs Post Office, on Friday.
“I went to the post office and apologized,” Martin said, displaying
the proper padded envelope that should be used when participating in
the campaign.
Both Cross and Helmick said Martin is on the right track now.
“Padded envelopes are perfect for this,” Cross said. “We hand cancel
them and they don’t get processed in our automated
machinery.”
The “Rice for Peace” campaign is based on a similar anti-war mailing
that took place in the 1950s, when President Eisenhower was
contemplating using nuclear weapons on two Chinese islands, Quemoy
and Matsu.
Citizens sent thousands of little bags of grain to the White House,
urging the president to feed the Chinese and not attack them.
Although there are still questions regarding the campaign’s ultimate
influence on not using nuclear weapons against China, the “Rice for
Peace” campaign is giving people an avenue to voice their opinions —
with a padded envelope, of course.
For more information on the “Rice for Peace” campaign, contact Lauren
Martin at 945-5245.

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