Hi all, Ember asked me this question about the Box rebellion Would you have any suggestions for Advocacy-Made-Easy-And-Cheap: The Boxes Rebellion? in this tread which has turned into a tread about advocacy
http://phoenixrising.me/forums/show...s-Over-Time-Pt-I-From-Symptoms-To-SPECT-Scans
So Ill repost my answer here in case anyone finds anything in it useful
Hi Ember hard to comment on the Boxes Rebellion idea without knowing what is going in the boxes!?
All media outlets lay out very specific guidelines as to how they want to receive information, these days it is usually by Email, the sudden arrival of a large number of boxes is likely to extremely piss them off and alienate them, and leave them with the very annoying job of having to dispose of the thousands of boxes. This annoyance will be compounded if the boxes contain contradictory information that is not backed up by creditable sources. For these reasons I recommend not sending them to media outlets.
However if publicity stunts are directed at the Government and Emails are sent to the media beforehand so they can go and cover the story, then they are very likely to write about the story! A good example of this would be the AIDS quilt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAMES_P...Memorial_Quilt
If for example A hundred thousand boxes were sent to the Whitehouse with HELP ME written in large letters on the outside, and inside contained the CDC statement
The name myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) was coined in the 1950s to clarify well-documented outbreaks of disease; however, ME is accompanied by neurologic and muscular signs and has a case definition distinct from that of CFS.
(Link to this statement here
http://www.cdc.gov/cfs/education/wb1032/chapter1-1.html statement at the bottom of the page.)
An explanation that the US government doesnt spend a single cent on ME research and that all the patients have been abandoned to suffer without help, and a copy of the ICC.
I would say that there would be a very good chance of this making the news all around the world as long as the media had been tipped of that a major protest was to happen at the Whitehouse before hand, if some ME patients and their families could be outside the Whitehouse with Banners, it would help increase the impact.
If all effort is directed at one maximum exposure target like say the White house it will maximize the effect, which will be lost if it is sent to multiple targets.
I would not advise sending to targets like the CDC, NIH, HHS you want to target the employer not the employee, the Government needs to be embarrassed into action, it needs to be brought to Obamas attention, so what better place then to have the boxes pilling up on his front lawn. ME has to be made an election issue, Obama has to know people wont vote for him unless he does something.
I dont know the details of White house security maybe the boxes would have to be delivered to outside the Whitehouse and have some people pile them up around the perimeter, Maybe another National Monument with less security would be more suitable but it has to be in Washington DC and Highly visible (sorry for my lack of knowledge of Washington monuments Im in New Zealand)
Personally I think the slogan HELP ME would be a good one to use because of its double meaning HELP ME (myalgic Encephalomyelitis)
And HELP ME the patient suffering from it. (Start printing the T shirts)
The only problem I see with the plan is getting enough people organized to do it on a big enough scale to make a difference, the US orgs like the CAA do not recognize the existence of ME and are unlikely to help. So there are likely to be a lot of logistical problems in getting it organized on a scale big enough to be effective.
All the best
