PLEASE
NOTE: This is almost 20 years AGO, (today). Mr. Runyon has since passed to his
rest, and the crisis of 1994 WAS averted!
The Washington Times
Postal Grinch who stole Christmas
November 20, 1994
Byline: Mark Kellner
Marvin Runyon, the white-haired Tennessean who
is postmaster general, looks more like a kindly grandfather than a Dr. Seuss
character. But following the announcement last Thursday of the 1995
commemorative stamp program, Mr. Runyon is now front-runner for the title of "The Grinch Who Stole
Christmas." Not to mention Hanukkah. After more than three decades of
tradition, the U.S. Postal Service has disclosed it will cancel its annual
custom of releasing a specific "Christmas" stamp. Printed literally
in the billions of copies each year, the miniature reproduction of the Madonna
and Child is balanced by secular "Greetings" stamps that portray
holiday themes.
Either stamp sells well in the two months
leading up to Dec. 25. As the holiday approaches, mailboxes - perhaps yours -
fill with cards and letters from friends and family, usually adorned with one
of the stamps. Each design - religious or not - sells many times the number of
popular Elvis Presley commemoratives the agency released in 1993.
Next year however, the artistic adhesive bearing
the image of Mary and Jesus will be no more, ending a tradition began in 1970
to supplement nonreligious designs first issued in 1962. Chalk it up to the
forces of political correctness - and the apparent complicity of Mr. Runyon,
who has the final say over the U.S. stamp program, even above that of the
Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee.
What's more, starting next year, post offices
won't be allowed to display signs reading "Merry Christmas" or
"Happy Hanukkah," since these allegedly would offend nonobservers of
these holidays.
In October, the USPS' Postal Bulletin, a
fortnightly for postmasters, contained a laundry list of dos and don'ts for
holiday decorations in 1995. Under rules that raise political correctness to
new heights, postmasters are ordered to bid farewell to displays of nativity
scenes, crosses or the Star of David.
"Displays should relate to the business of the
Postal Service," the Bulletin said. "The Postal Service must avoid
the appearance of favoring any particular religion or religion itself."
Post offices will be allowed to display
"evergreen trees bearing nonreligious ornaments," or a menorah, a traditional
Hanukkah symbol, but only "when displayed with other seasonal
matter," the USPS declared. It is permissible to have a display for the
Afro-American festival of Kwanza, the agency stated.
According to Linn's Stamp News, a weekly
collector's publication, the USPS was poised to extend the Christmas ban to
stamps, ending decades of tradition. Before the unveiling, Postal Service
spokeswoman Robin Minard said Thursday's stamp design announcement was to
determine "if the C-word will be on a stamp." So now
"Christmas" has become "the C-word"? Humbug!
Although Christmas stamps have attracted various
protests over the years, principally from atheist groups, the dozen or so
postmasters general who preceded Mr. Runyon have ignored the gripes. After all,
the USPS once said, if you don't want to use a Christmas stamp, we've got
plenty of other designs to sell.
Now, for reasons best known to the USPS' senior
management, the agency has decided to worship at the altar of political
correctness. Instead of advocating freedom of religion (featured on a Norman
Rockwell commemorative this year), the Postal Service is taking a stand for
freedom from religion.
It's sad to contemplate that so tiny a thing as
a Christmas stamp, which has been popular for more than three decades, is now
deemed an anachronism. That post offices, long a center of life in the
communities they serve, can't have Christmas or Hanukkah displays that would
reflect their community's tastes, is equally disappointing.
In an age when society needs all the positive
symbols we can get, it's distressing to envision a Yuletide without a
stamp-sized reminder on holiday mail, or a wintry post office bearing a
"Merry Christmas" sign. The quiet, PC-rich excision of these stamps
and displays insults all people of faith and reflects poorly on the Postal
Service.
Public protest - and perhaps a nudge from the
White House and Congress - might persuade Mr. Runyon to drop his Grinchlike
pose. There's still time to return Christmas stamps to the schedule and Hanukkah
displays to post offices. Such moves are not an establishment of religion, but
rather a simple recognition of the role faith plays in American's lives.
Mark A. Kellner has been a stamp collector since 1970 and has published articles on philately in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Australia. From 1991 to 1993, he was capitol correspondent for Stamp Collector newspaper.
Mark is also a former Salvationist having served in the New York Central Citadel Corps along with his wife Jean, a former SA officer.
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