ZGram - 3/30/2004 - HUNGER STRIKE ANNOUNCED!

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

Zgram - Where Truth is Destiny:  Now more than ever!

March 30, 2004

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

This is a very important Zgram.  All of my friends and supporters - 
take note, and get ready to put your shoulders to the wheel.  All of 
our enemies - you're herewith put on notice. 

My dearest husband, Ernst Zundel, ethnic activist par excellence, is 
being held captive in a hellhole of a Canadian prison where he has to 
wear the orange overall of murderers and rapists, as the entire world 
now knows - not for anything that he has done, not for anything for 
which he has been charged, but, arbitrarily and brutally, because the 
Jewish Lobby wants him there. 

I want my husband to come home - and I have right and justice on my 
side, at least in theory.  Will I succeed in practice?  We'll see.  

I will be going on a hunger strike on April 19, Canadian Holocaust 
Day, in order to dislodge my husband from the clutches of the 
Canadian Holocaust lobby - an arrogant lobby that has put a ring 
through the Canadian government's nose.  They pull, and grown men 
dance.  Is that a pretty sight?

And right here in America - only yesterday the beacon of justice, 
honor, freedom?  It seems I cannot get my government, not even my own 
representative, to listen to our plight, much less to explain to me 
exactly why my husband was arrested - and what should be done to undo 
such a heartbreaking wrong.

I intend to force the issue. I have a great deal of determination and 
willpower, and I intend to stick it out.  I will do it my way - 
gently, ladylike, cognizant of who I am, where I come from, why I 
feel the way I do.  I believe in the merits of civilized conduct.  I 
don't approve of violence;  I don't even allow smut around me.  I 
will merely draw on stubborn willpower that my forebears bequeathed 
on me. 

You, all of you, will be asked to do your part to publicize my hunger 
strike.  Please do whatever you can - let all the world know.  I 
believe I have a plan that is going to work, and with the right 
support and help from you, and from my friends, supporters, and media 
colleagues  overseas, we are going to make sure we'll be heard.   

You might ask:  Why Ingrid?  Why not Ernst?

There is a very simple answer:  A man in the cell next to Ernst's 
went on a hunger strike for more than 40 days - and the Canadian 
media yawned.  The net result?  A pair of slippers in his ice cold 
cell so that he wouldn't get frostbites. 

I am still free.  I have more leeway here and can maneuver better.  I 
am also in much better health, because Ernst has now survived more 
than a year on subhuman food rations, and it shows.  From what little 
he tells me, there is never enough food;  whatever food is served is 
always cold;  his body has suffered, as has his mind;  even his voice 
is giving out - so this is an emergency!  I am a skilled, experienced 
publicist.  I  have a website.  I have friends.  I believe I can make 
this gross human rights abuse known to the world - with the help of 
my readers out there.  

Here's what I energetically intend to do: 

Between now and April 19, I will mobilize whatever media I can.  I 
rather doubt that I can get a great deal of support from mainstream 
media, at least not at the start, but Ernst and I are well enough 
known to get support from alternative media.  We will have broad, 
explicit coverage of my hunger strike, believe me!  And sooner or 
later, mainstream media will pick up because this is a story of 
abominable human rights abuse unworthy of this country and our 
neighbors to the North where a man can be judicially and perhaps even 
physically murdered by inches. 

On April 19, I will meet whatever media will show up on the steps of 
the Sevierville, Tennessee Courthouse and officially announce my 
hunger strike, giving precise and cogent reasons.  If nobody comes, 
I will have my say regardless.  I will have my press release taped 
for posterity, and it is going to play on the Net. 

Then I will have friends and neighbors drive me to the office of my 
representative, Congressman William B. Jenkins.  For months, I have 
faxed him reams of information of our plight.  I have asked to see 
him face to face, repeatedly, in carefully crafted, polite, 
respectful letters.  I have yet to receive a reply. 

Well, as the saying goes, if Mohammed won't meet the mountain, the 
mountain will go to Mohammed.  I will go to Congressman Jenkins's 
office and tell his staff that I have come to find out where the 
bottleneck is - and I will wait until my Congressman shows up to help 
me find my way. I will tell the staff that I assume the office is 
paid by taxpayers' money, and I believe I have a right to be there 
for as long as I need to be there.  I will make sure they understand 
that I have come to stay.

I will let them know that I am starting a hunger strike to emphasize 
the urgency of our plight, but that I will keep office hours, 
civilized soul that I am.  I intend to come back every morning and 
leave at five-o'clock, until Mr. Jenkins can find the time and desire 
to see me.  I can wait.  I have waited more than a year to get an 
answer from an official agency - and I mean ANY agency - so what's 
another three, four weeks? I will be on my best behavior, and will 
not bother anyone.  I will just sit and wait.  If I get evicted, I 
will sit in the hall.  If that is not seemly, I will sit outside on 
the sidewalk with a sign right next to me saying I'm doing vigil for 
my kidnapped husband until the government will help me get him back. 

Now you might ask: why only on the 19th - why not immediately?  There 
are several reasons for that.  I will enumerate a few.

_____  Easter is in the middle of April.  I don't want my plans 
undone because people might be gone to attend to their vacation plans.

_____  It will take time to mobilize massive media and internet 
support.  I need to get a head start on publicity.  My aim is for a 
real hurricane of news that no one can ignore. 

_____  I need to get my April letters ("Power" in English, "Germania" 
in German) out to the rest of the world.  I am counting on support 
from Europe and a few other places on this globe.

_____  I am just about ready to get a book about Ernst's ordeal to 
the printer:  "Setting the Record Straight:  Letters from Cell # 7." 
I want that project out of the way before I commit myself "for the 
duration."

_____  I also need to make arrangements for practical, direct support 
- someone to drive me back and forth to and from Mr. Jenkins's 
office, someone to take care of  daily chores, someone to man the 
telephone, someone who could provide medical supervision and even 
intervention if needed.  I expect to get very weak, but I do have a 
spine of steel - as my past life has proven and some of my foes have 
found out. 

That is the plan.  I need to look into some legal questions, for I 
would not want to end up with charges of "stalking" or "harassing" or 
whatever else our enemies might possibly dream up.  I want to do this 
gently, carefully, respectfully, and with great dignity.  I feel I 
can do that - knowing what I know about our history, why my husband 
was abducted, and by whom. 

One final word.  I don't know Mr. Jenkins.  I have never talked to 
him.  Let me admit that I dread doing this.  I hope that between now 
and the 19th he will find a spot on his busy calendar so he and I can 
meet, talk face to face, and hopefully find a solution.  I have 
looked at his picture on the Internet for a very long time, and he 
comes across to me as decent, kind and caring.  I don't know why he 
refuses to reply and give me an appointment. It is my right.  It is 
his duty, I always assumed.  I don't think he would want to hurt me 
or turn against me, but I do think that he is realistic and afraid of 
serious blowback - and don't we all know why?  Chances are the ADL 
already got their smear  sheets out to him.  Our enemies have 
succeeded in so demonizing us and our cause that there is a real 
price to be paid.  

However, I believe with all my heart that if I start out very gently 
- just being physically there, being polite, being quiet, just 
letting his staff know me as a responsible, thoughtful woman who has 
lost her husband to an egregious act of violence,  letting them see I 
am willing to suffer, willing to take humiliation and hurt because I 
have a righteous cause, hearts will be moved after all.

You, my readers, will be given an update each night if I can manage 
it - for as long as I can manage it.  Be sure to publicize my story. 
My updates may be short, but for as long as I can, you can expect 
from me a daily greeting and further instructions on what you can do. 
And there is lots to do for you as well - if you care about your own 
freedom. 

For now, please start by faxing a brief message to Mr. Jenkins's 
office at 423-247-1834.   No need to write a dissertation.  Just 
write a simple paragraph or two, in your own words, telling him you 
will alert the media and spread the message far and wide that I am 
going on a hunger strike right in the Jenkins office April 19, 
stressing that you request, as friends and supporters of the Zundels, 
that he do all he can to free Ernst Zundel from illegal incarceration 
and let him come home to his wife.  Tell him you are behind me all 
the way - as I know you have been all along.

I thank you very much. 

Ingrid Rimland Zundel