Little, Green Army Men Protest--Pls read & help us organize!!!

Hi All,
Today we got a great idea for protest involving little, green army men...

(taken from this post by helderheid:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5487490)

Woman buys little green Army soilders and writes "bring me home" on them..
Just got this in my e-mail - what a great anti-war action!

I heard on NPR last night -

Short mention of a woman who buys the little green Army men toy soldiers and writes on them or puts a sticker on the bottom that says
"Bring Me Home"and then she leaves them in public places.


Here's a great idea that was passed to me. I'm all over this. Think of how many kids will pick-up one of these and then will read the sticker on the bottom. It's really quite ingenuis. Please, as many people as possible pick-up a bag and do this. It would spread the anti-war message to exponentailly a greater amount of individuals. Time to really stand strong with the left and to organize labor, ralley alongside (shore up the flanks) with the growing leftist anti-war movement. Children will show this to their parents, somehtm,eselves (older teens) will question the Gov't. This is really good stuff.
peace,
b.m.

Thanks so much to helderheid for sharing this with us all! :hi:

Well, what if we take this a step further? Let's attach a note to the green army man, but let's also send them to our senators' offices. Let's coordinate a day that we will all send them out. Imagine the impact of senators across America getting little, green army men in their office mail on the same day--all with notes attached about bringing our troops home!

So, if you would like to participate in this protest, please post to this thread. If you have an idea of a good day that we could all shoot for doing this on, please express that as well...

Thanks!
:patriot:

He heard the same NPR report. He gave me 10 to pass out.

NGU.

Now we've got to coordinate an effort to send them to our senator's offices and to the White House. Flood them!

They wont get through. They do not accept packages.

Otherwise, great idea.

I appreciate it. Wish I saw this sooner. I just noted at the bottom of the thread, I won't be pushing for an organized effort anymore (for govt. offices). So I guess it's just as well, considering they wouldn't accept them anyway.

Oh well. Thanks again! :hi:

Mine says "Hostage of Halliburton"

Another said "I miss my mom"

They all had little yellow ribbons on them.

Btw CW, I used your "Visualize Impeachment" sticker on one of the protest signs. So there's a littel bit of you in the Waukesha protest group now.

I like "I miss my mom." Really moving. I think I'll borrow that one.

NGU.

It makes me think of Lila's son from F-9/11--the letter he wrote her prior to his death. He missed her and his entire family and wanted to go home...

:cry:

That scene absolutely destroys me!

...these four:

I miss my mom.

Are my kids okay?

Why did they lie?

This isn’t my mission.

Waddaya think?

NGU.

at getting the point across!

:thumbsup:

..When WILL I get to come home?"

I dunno...something like that. I say either right before Christmas or right after. Maybe when everyone in DC comes back after holidays?
My brain isn't working.

So perfect! :applause:

What do you guys say--what about sending them out prior to Christmas? With some messages like lildreamers or something like it...

No Place Like Home for the Holidays...

Or Why Can't I Be Home for the Holidays?

Or should we do it just after, like for the New Year?

Post away--I'm off to check ebay for little, green army men in bulk!
;)

i was just doing a search on ebay too!

Hi!

:hi: Always good to see you...!

There's a lot more on ebay than I expected. If some of us get the buckets full of them, we can make sure other members get some of our supply.

congress critters!

They deserve every single green army man we can send to them--maybe they will get off their asses and start working on a way to bring the troops home. They need to know we want ACTION--not more talking.

:hi:

:hi:

if any groups would be interested in a silent protest in front of recruitment offices or other govt. buildings--while wearing green army fatigues like the little men we are sending out...


:shrug: Just a thought...

forums, blogs, etc - sent on to local peace groups...

in the Activism area of DU.

Who else may be interested in taking up this effort that we could contact?

We still need a date, too. We need to get a good idea of when Senators are IN OFFICE and not on vacation for the holidays, so that this has the most impact possible...

Imagine lil green plastic army men, to the rescue of the ones who have created them, Oh man this is imagination becoming reality! genius! Peace

I hand out dogtags from


http://www.optruth.org/



http://www.veteransforpeace.org/

I wear a set that I got a loooong time ago, just for the symbolic statement, but these are SO much better! I'm buying them!

To wear these tags, and to be able to pass them out to people--so cool!

Their stickers would be great for this effort--thank you for the links!

I think it holds more impact to get them out and in offices on the same day--we could talk about making it a week long thing, too... whatever works...

Just let me know when :)

Jury is still out on a date--but we will definitely let it be known when we do!

:hi:
Thanks for your support!

on Christmas trees or Christmas Gifts Bows...

:applause:

we did it like a flash mob! You know how some malls have a center of the mall tree ... imagine a flash mob approaching and hanging them all at once ... then dispersing into the crowd. It would work great in big malls. Add the name of a soldier that won't be home for any christmas ever again on the hook and the "I won't be home for christmas" on the bottom would be awesome.

The image of the 'flash mob' is delightful.

Is there a mall near you, where you would be interested in coordinating such an effort?

I will pm you an email address of someone in a larger city with a fairly large group that might be able to arrange just such a thing. If you want to contact this person, they just might be able to pull it off without a hitch!

Thanks so much for the pm--I appreciate it!

I'll focus on pulling the main part off first--if others express interest in the idea, then I'll get in touch with your contact.

Thanks again! :hi:

It would be great to also do a picture of a green army man, that could be downloaded and printed out for those that may not be able to find green army men in their area...

With a downloaded picture, they can color it in green and write a message on it and send it to their senators, the White House and anybody else they want to get the message out to.

So if we have any graphics wizards, could you check in on this and let us know if this is feasible? And/or volunteer to do this for us?

Thanks!

that are willing to contact their senators offices tomorrow to find out what their hours are this month? If there will be days during the month that the senators will be away for vacation, holiday, etc.

This should give us a better idea of what date may be good to do this...

So anyone willing to contact their local senators offices tomorrow, please let me know!


Thanks!

:hi:



Please bring me home.

thanks so much, sfexpat! That should help give us a gauge to determine a date.

Yay!

Your army man pic is cool!

http://www.mouthswideopen.org/armymen.shtml

I got a handful of army men when Cindy Sheehan spoke here. I've been putting them on store shelves, payphones, subway platforms... Good idea to check ebay! :)

I'm going to do it.

Reclaim the true meaning of the gesture.

the excellent work that was done in Germany in the not-too-distant past: the tiny flags with Bush's face, planted in every pile of dog poop.

:kick:

:patriot:

I burst into tears when I read the "I miss my mom" idea. :cry:

:kick:

:hi:

With everyone busy with their holidays, out of town guests, etc. What if we shot for the New Year?

We could either aim for mailing everything before New Years Eve or We could do this as a collective protest the first week of the new year? If we shoot for the first week of the New Year, I figured that gives everyone an opportunity to be finished with their shopping, holiday visitors and out of town guests, traveling, etc.

So, should we set the date for sometime the first week of the New Year?

If I get positive responses from this, I'll just randomly select a day for us to send out all of our little, green army men...

So please weigh in here with your thoughts or feelings on this!
Thanks!

bliss_e!

and I think we need to pick a date when we are sure there will be a majority of senators/congresspeople in town. Either that or pick a symolic date...
2006 Federal Legal Holidays
• January 16, 2006: Martin Luther King Day <3rd monday in Jan>
or Jan. 20th, *'s inauguration day.

or even Imbolic; but I think that is too late and not really relevant. Any other ideas?

it should be a day when the majority of congress people are in town and it would also be great to pick a symbolic day.

I like MLK Day-- as it's after the christmas/hannukah/kwanza and related holiday celebrations. So DU'ers should be less stressed, congress people should be in town.

I also like the fact that MLK stands for peaceful protest. I can't think of anything more peaceful than sending little, green men in the mail! On edit--But the only problem is, I'm not sure if that is a day that mail is actually delivered.

So in the event it isn't, should we shoot for the day AFTER MLK day? Or just go for the boy king's coronation day--symbolic of the perpetuation of the lies day?

Anyone else have any thoughts on this, or want to second this motion?

Thanks lildreamer--this is an excellent suggestion!

I hope people are still interested...

Best to send them to their Home Office addresses

of either Martin Luther King's birthday (day after--mail not deliverable that day), or the day before...

Or the day of the boy king's coronation (Jan. 20)...

Anyone?

Anyone still interested in this?

so based on that, I won't be pushing this issue anymore. I'll send an army man independently--but won't continue to attempt to organize an actual day, time, etc. when we ALL send them to govt. offices.

Sorry--I just don't see the interest or support in terms of confirming a day/date, etc.

Anyone that is interested, feel free to continue on your own.

:hi:

Enjoy the rest of your weekends!

You know from a marketing standpoint, this idea is good enough to catch on. Little green army guys all over the place. Talk about getting the message out.... I bet the freepers copy the idea within a week.