Just damn.
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Posted on 12/08/2004 12:21:57 AM PST by torqemada
Saturday after Thanksgiving is the traditional day to purchase stamps for my annual Christmas card mailing... [snip] So, shortly before noon on that most recent post-turkey day, I sauntered into a neighborhood "U.S. Postal Store," [snip] and headed for the stamps-only section. I quickly found a packed wall of display racks offering a panoply of first-class postage devoted to the various elements of the year-end holiday season, specifically:
1) Christmas, featuring colorful, contemporary designs of Santa Claus with an array of inanimate, secular Yule symbols;
2) Kwanzaa, with not just one but two stamps promoting a totally fabricated "harvest holiday" for African-Americans, [snip]
3) Hanukkah, the ancient Jewish festival that marks the rededication of the temple wrested from the savage control of Syria's King Antiochus IV; and
4) Eid (Arabic for "festival"), a two-part, post-Ramadan feasting period for Muslims.
Beholding such philatelic diversity in a simple American post office truly is a multicultural moment that a few weeks earlier would have reduced John Kerry to tears of joy.
Something, however, was missing. "Where," I asked the attending postal clerk, "are the traditional Madonna & Child stamps?" (Postal authorities for years have issued both nonreligious and religious commemorative stamps for this holiday season, to satisfy equally those citizens who groove exclusively on office-partying and those who quaintly still revere the birth of Christ.)
"Those stamps," said the clerk with an odd, ecumenical smile, are here in this drawer, "under the counter." She slowly pulled open the discreet trove and withdrew samples of the Virgin Mary and her Baby Jesus for my fascination, as if they were products of an eccentric artist with copious red body hair who works at night, alone in the P.O. attic.....
Read the rest of the article at: http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=5906
(Excerpt) Read more at humaneventsonline.com ...
I am at an absolute loss for words over this one. If you're not, please feel free to comment.
Send the postmaster a postcard with a picture of a lump of coal.
Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and now we have Eid. Now everybody can celebrate shopping season!
Send the postmaster a photo of a FedEx truck with your naked butt mooning him out the window.
Celebrating the real meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, is subversive.
Dare I say, even counterculture.
;-)
Who decided the real meaning of Christmas?
Like what it means and how it should be celebrated.
Should it be some kind of religious ceremony or service or decorations and gift giving?
If someone really wanted to do it right where would they look to know for sure?
Just a little friendly advice. Don't believe everything you read in the newspaper or hear/see on the news.
CBS, NBC, USA Today, The New York Times, LA Times, Boston Globe, BBC, and The Mirror have all been caught fabricating news items.
Celebrate the true meaning of Christmas EVERY DAY. Easter too.
They are great things to celebrate.
Myth? Hardly. I specifically asked for stamps with a religious image. They had to go into the back of my local post office to get some.
I will find out today. I am headed to my local PO to get my usual 50 or $60.00 worth of stamps. I still have a bunch of Flags so I'll be looking for the Christian religious ones.
Psst. Hey kid... want a Santa? Only 37 cents... this time.
Since I began buying commemorative stamps, they always place the special new commemoratives in the drawers of each booth for each Postal clerk.
The "regular" or most published stamps can be purchased in a machine, on a roll, in the grocery store, at Costco, etc.
The limited editions including Christmas stamps, are kept in a folder in a drawer along with all the other special issues.
This author is looking for problems, looking for something to gripe about.
There are many negatives to be found in the US Post Office, but this author just tried to make something out of nothing. It must be desperate times for the author.
Several years in a row the "new" Christmas stamps included the Madonna either in painting or sculpture, etc. There have been angel Christmas stamps, Santa Claus stamps, Christmas stamps with new toys, old toys, etc.
On your next trip to the Post Office, ask the clerk what the new commemoratives are since October, if they still have them, that is. Casual amateur stamp collectors often buy them up in bulk and your local Post Office may be sold out. Sold out does not imply religious discrimination.
THE CHRISTMAS LINKS PAGE
http://www.truthusa.com/CHRISTmas.html
It's more like a boatload of poetic license.
I may be completely wrong about this.
But....I think the meaning of Christmas may, possibly have something to do with the first six letters in the word. Christ
Like I said I may be wrong.
The post office would have no problem having a Madonna the pop slut on a Christmas stamp to buy in plain view.
And be sure to use a Mother and Child stamp on it.
I get your point but I think you missed mine.
I was at the Post Office this past Saturday to buy stamps. At the counter, I asked for a book and received a bunch of stamps with Santa as an ornament. Cute, but no Jesus. I did not know these other Christian stamps were available. While standing there, the other clerk was waiting on a lady and showing her different stamps. He showed and told her about the Kwanza and Hannakuh stamps. When he mentioned the Kwanza stamps, I snorted out loud. Man, did he give me a nasty look. I thought it was funny.
I get your point...it's on the top of your head...
I bought mine under the counter three weeks ago. Especially since the desk person said that there wouldnt be anymore...that they wouldnt order anymore.
Be countercultural, ask for the Christian Christmas stamps.
I understood the article to say that there were posters up for all the holiday stamps except the Christian ones.
***I would be very surprised if this really happened. I'm betting a certain poetic license has been invoked. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.***
A LOT of poetic license was involved. The Post Office put an ad for postage stamps in my mail box, and it had the Madonna and Child stamp at the top of the pix.
I'm glad the writer is promoting keeping Christ in Christmas, but I don't believe his silly claim helps the cause.
Just damn.
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It's getting bad. I'm rarely an alarmist on these things, but my AOL commie news comes on with their leading loaded question, "Does religion belong in public? Tis the season for debate?" My wife and I are moving soon and we are stuck with them as our carrier til then.
What they mean is: "Does the Christian religion belong in public?" I was just sent a flyer at my company celebrating Kwanzaa and Hannukkah. It ain't about "religion," per se. Only one of them. We are reaching a point where active persecution will be next if we don't stop this thing.
And they wonder why "Holiday" sales are down. Who wants to buy for "Holiday"?
There seems to be no Festivus stamps which would have as much validity as the Kwanzaa ones.
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Merry Christmas. |
Imagine a Postmaster General who would boldly stand before the Press and state: "We follow the Risen Lord - I've ordered all non-Christian Christmas stamps destroyed."
I heard from a relative that the religious Christmas stamps were being kept hidden at our local post office, so I took a close look when I was there on Monday. What I found was that the Madonna and child stamps were in the display case right along with the Santa stamps, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, and Eid stamps. There was a poster showing all the special holiday stamps at the service desk. The only problem I had was that they were nearly sold out of the Madonna stamps and the clerks had to scrounge to find me the 80 that I requested. I encountered no negative attitudes or hiding of stamps. They were indeed in a drawer, but that's normal for commemoratives. Perhaps there are problems somewhere, but not in my little Pennsylvania community.
I don't go with the rest, though. Postal clerks store ALL stamps in drawers "under the counter." If you buy stamps, you know this.
I was reminded of a commercial that took place in a locker room of Jocks and 5 or 6 clergy of different Faiths blessing the team. How many stamps would it take to cover all the Religions in our country...
I would say the experience is isolated and subjectively described.
My post office prominently displays it along with the other stamps available.
How old are you? I simply don't believe you "didn't know". I also don't believe you were simply handed stamps and not asked what design you preferred.
I get the Christian stamps, and it certainly is not "countercultural" to do so. That is absurd.
Of course I've heard of it.
I understood the tone and find adopting a world weary and martyred tone tiresome.
AMEN!
That's ridiculous. One would have to be a toddler not to be aware the Madonna and Child stamps are customary. As to how the post office deals, I've been in many across the nation and they always ask what design I want.
I wouldn't have trouble believing an isolated instance but the poster chose the first lie about "not knowing" a religious stamp existed that cast the rest of the post into question.
Better yet, email your Christmas greetings.
I wasn't aware that the "Postal Service" even existed anymore.
Are they the folks who drop off 2 pounds of junk advertisements at my house every day?
LOL
Chill out.
Funny. My post office has all the "other" religious stamps on display, but no Christian themes in sight. I wouldn't assume every Post Office is like those in your area.
Who decided the real meaning of Christmas?
I may be completely wrong about this.
But....I think the meaning of Christmas may, possibly have something to do with the first six letters in the word. Christ
<<<<<<<<<,
That's funny.
Where in my posts did you find reference to: stamps "on display" or Christian themes "in sight?"
I'm a bit suspicious of the story myself. I just went to the post office two days ago, and the Madonna and Child stamp was prominantly displayed along with the others.
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