34 lines
1.5 KiB
Plaintext
34 lines
1.5 KiB
Plaintext
Subject: The Flag Takes A Licking
|
|
|
|
New York Times, August 8, 1989, Letter to the Editor, by Ruth L. Kaplan:
|
|
|
|
The other day I bought a roll of 25 cent postage stamps. I have not had a
|
|
moment's peace since. For, upon unfurling this roll, I discovered that every
|
|
one of the 100 stamps bears the unmistakable likeness of the American flag.
|
|
|
|
To appreciate my consternation, consider what is in store for these stamps.
|
|
First, I must lick the flag-- er, stamp. Then I will drop it into a dark
|
|
box, wehre it may well be bruised, possibly even torn. Next, the stamp/flag
|
|
will go to the Post Office, where an inexorable machine will stomp on it,
|
|
defiling it with ugly lines in order to "cancel" it.
|
|
|
|
"Cancel" our inviolable flag?
|
|
|
|
But wait. The horrors mount. In time, the stamp will reach the addressee,
|
|
who may rip it in eagerly opening the envelope. Ultimately, the flag stamp--
|
|
licked, cancelled, defaced, ripped-- will be consigned to the trash, doomed
|
|
to decompose in a dump, linger in a landfill or-- shudder!-- be converted to
|
|
charcoal and burned under a steak.
|
|
|
|
What's a patriot to do?
|
|
|
|
I wonder if the Post Office will allow me to return a rerolled roll of
|
|
stamps. But even it it does, it'll just resell it, perhaps to some
|
|
insensitive stamper who will lick, deface, cancel and rip those flags without
|
|
a twinge of conscience.
|
|
|
|
I pray (but not in school) for some official, even Presidential, guidance.
|
|
|
|
Ruth L. Kaplan is a retired Federal (but not postal) employee.
|
|
--
|