White House confirms it got 2 million red envelopes
President's mail worker claims letter campaign 1 of largest in 35 years
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Posted: April 06, 2009
8:21 pm Eastern
By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
The White House mail office has confirmed it received a "deluge" of as many as 2.25 million red envelopes symbolizing the empty promise of lives snuffed out in abortion in a massive campaign that was larger than most White House mailing movements in the last 35 years.
White House mail worker "Steve" has handled letters for 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for more than three decades. Every single package and letter destined for the White House goes through his office.
Asked if he has seen a flood of red envelopes bound for the White House, Steve chuckled.
"Uh, yes," he said emphatically. "Believe me, they made it here."
Steve said while Obama has been occupied in Europe, his administration has noticed millions of red envelopes on behalf of aborted children.
"Quite frankly, there was definitely a deluge of mail coming through," he laughed. "I had to handle them all."
"I've been here 35 years, so I've seen presidents come and go," Steve told WND. "This campaign ranks up there with the big ones."
The Red Envelope Project is an idea sparked in the mind and prayers of a Massachusetts man, Christ Otto, who envisioned in January thousands of red envelopes sent to the White House, a visual expression of moral outrage over the president's position on abortion.
On the backs of the envelopes, senders wrote a message Otto composed: "This envelope represents one child who died in abortion. It is empty because that life was unable to offer anything to the world. Responsibility begins with conception."
The original project began small, but when Otto sent out an email to friends asking them to join him in the envelope effort, the symbolic gesture spread through the Internet like wildfire – eventually resulting in delivery of as many as 2.25 million red envelopes.
"Last Tuesday 2.25 million were sent all together," Otto told WND. "There were 1 million sent before that date. I keep getting e-mails, and I know that people are still sending them. This past weekend, there were at least 10,000 more sent just from churches announcing it on Sunday."
The Catholic News Agency reports that a consortium of 11 different student groups at the University of Notre Dame, in protest of the university's invitation of Barack Obama to speak at graduation, plan to hand deliver a surge of the red envelopes to the pro-abortion president when he arrives to give the commencement address in May.
Otto said he expected no response from the White House.
"On Thursday their goal is to remove the conscience clause on physicians," he said. "So, they don't want any press."
However, WND was successful in confirming that the red envelopes did arrive.
Asked if he hopes President Obama will be influenced by the campaign Otto said, "I really hope that he is seeing them. I know that somebody in Washington is seeing them, for whatever that's worth. I do hope that it changes the president's heart."
He continued, "I also know that there are many people in our government – in both political parties – who believe that life and freedom are controlled by the state. They want to control who lives and who dies. So, it's not just the president, but there are lots of people in Washington who need to know that this was an important thing and that they are out of step with the people."
The Red Envelope Project has been provided with letters to cease and desist because it allegedly infringes upon trademark and copyright of another organization, but Otto said the campaign will comply with copyright issues and continue its work once the legal matters have been resolved. Details of the new campaign have not been released.
Nonetheless, Otto said the Red Envelope campaign was a resounding success.
"It has made a difference, regardless of what happened in Washington," he said. "Just the numbers of children that have been involved are huge. It's gotten a lot of people talking about the value of life. To me, that's priceless."
