The Brown Bag Project

Authored by Tom Gould
22 Nov 2004
Endorsed by Colonel George "Bud" Day, Medal of Honor recipient.
Managed by Floyd Sears (fsears@bellsouth.net), MSGT, USAF, 1951 to 1971 (ret).

Change Number 1 to the Brown Bag Project plan - 14 April 2005. Henceforth, any form of written correspondence that is sent by regular mail to the United States Congress or the President in support of the "Keep Our Promise to America's Military Retirees Act" will be considered Brown Bag correspondence and should be entered in the Brown Bag Tracking System at http://mrgrg-ms.org/educate-the-congress.html.

Change Number 2 to the Brown Bag Project plan - 21 Jan 2006. Henceforth, any communication with the United States Congress or the President in support of the "Keep Our Promise to America's Military Retirees Act", examples: e-mail, web form, regular mail, telephone, FAX, or personal contact, will be considered a Brown Bag contact and should be entered in the Brown Bag Tracking System at http://mrgrg-ms.org/educate-the-congress.html.

As of 17 Jan 2006, the focus of this project is now on sending messages to the Congress via Fax and Web Form. See schedule at: http://mrgrg-ms.org/fax-it.html

Here's the plan: Every retiree involved in this broken promise issue should do this .....once a week ....rip up a piece of a old brown paper bag ....don't cut the section out "nice and clean" just rip it out with your hands (about 8" x 10" will do). Now ....its important that everyone uses a brown paper bag ....no other paper will do.

Then on your piece of paper bag ....write, print or whatever is your quick message to the congressman/woman .... it doesn't have to be great "English" or "the correct words" ....just plain words to say "You and the government broke your promise to me and my family" ....or "I want to see you put a bill on the floor that restores my rights to free medical care" ...you get the idea. You can write it in grease pencil ...ink...paint....whatever...don't even try to be neat and tidy.

Put it in an envelope and with one 37 cent stamp send it off to Congress. Now ....if all of us do this simple thing ...once a week ...every week...week after week ....we will finally get their attention and the reason is this: Every week just about every member of congress is going to be getting these pieces of brown bag ....with the note on them ....and the more of us that do this well ....congress will be getting thousands of these pieces of brown bag week after week. And the cost to us: one piece of brown bag, alittle grease pencil, and one 37 cent stamp a week plus envelope. We will be sending thousands of these to congress week after week ....sooner or later a news reporter will pick up on it and then we are on TV. There is no cheaper way to do this with as much force.

I know...the idea may sound dumb ....but ...surprise some of your friends and bring it up as an "off the wall" idea. After they stop laughing and "really think about the idea" they just might see the power in it for the price. The idea is using your mailing list ....send the idea out to your people and pick a starting date ...from then on we all write once a week on ripped brown paper bag a note to congress. And for only 37 cents a week. After a congressperson gets about 2000 or so of these a week ....just seeing the brown paper notes falling out of the envelopes will tell them what the message is.

I use to write congress, and have sent them hundreds of e-mails ....I will tell you sending e-mail is the worst way to contact them. What we need is brown paper notes, every week, being sent week after week ..... I believe the simple approach, low cost, direct mail is the way to go.

Procedure:

Send Brown Bag letters to:

Senator _________________________*
U.S. Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20510

Representative _________________________*
U.S. Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20515

President George Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

* See the following web pages for full names Senators:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
and Representatives
http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.shtml

Then click here to update the Educate the Congress Tracking System.

Updating the Tracking System is very important. It allows us to keep track of how many letters have been sent and who they have been sent to. If you encounter problems updating the Tracking System then contact Floyd Sears at fsears@bellsouth.net

Example of Brown Bag letters ready to be sent
Provided by
Tom Hawkins

100 Brown Bag Letters ready to be sent to the Senate
Provided by
Bob Sorenson

100 Brown Bag Letters ready to be sent to the Congress
Provided by
Jean D. Beard

Click fsears@bellsouth.net to e-mail the webmaster
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