Bush Hand-Picked Controversial 9/11 Stamp

NewsMax.com ^ | 3/17/02 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

President Bush personally selected a controversial photo of three white firefighters raising the American flag at Ground Zero for a U.S. postage stamp commemorating the 9/11 attacks, according to the congressman who introduced legislation proposing a stamp to memorialize the attacks last fall.

"The interesting thing here is [the Postal Service] sent about four or five designs over to the White House," revealed Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., during an interview Sunday with WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg.

"And the president, I think, picked this one. He picked the actual photograph - which is unusual, because we don't put live people on stamps," Ackerman said.

The much-celebrated photograph of firemen George Johnson, Dan McWilliams and Billy Eisengrein raising Old Glory amidst the rubble just hours after the attacks became embroiled in controversy in January after NewsMax.com revealed rampant discontent within the New York City Fire Department over an earlier plan to portray the event with a racially altered statue of the three men.

The ensuing firestorm of public protest forced cancellation of the planned statue, with the Postal Service's selection two months later of the actual flag-raising photo widely viewed as a victory for historical accuracy over political correctness.

But it was not known until Sunday that Bush himself, and not the Postal Service, made the final decision on the stamp. Its unveiling took place Monday at the White House, with the president posing for pictures next to Eisengrein, McWilliams and Johnson inside the Oval Office.

The photographer who snapped the now world-famous shot, Thomas Franklin of The Record of North Jersey newspaper, was also on hand for the unveiling.

Playing off the brouhaha surrounding the canceled statue, Ackerman joked, "[The ceremony] was wonderful. Nobody showed up in blackface or turned into somebody else. They were who they started out that morning [as]."

The price of the 9/11 stamp will be 45 cents - 11 extra cents over normal cost - with most of the additional cost going directly to help the widows and children of the first firefighters lost in the 9/11 attacks, Ackerman said.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
War on Terrorism

[mewzilla]

Memo to NewsMax: The photo was never controversial.

[goldstategop]

Nope. And kudos to President Bush for his thumbs down on Political Correctness!!!

[backhoe]

FYI!

[Blueflag]

For those of us late to the story, is there a photo of the stamp available?

[grammymoon]

Thank you President Bush.

[WIladyconservative]

[Blueflag]

OK, I did my homework. Here's the url for the stamp (photo) I can't make the link work to a photo in a post. Failed html kindergarten.

http://www.usps.com/news/2002/philatelic/02_heroes.jpg

[Blueflag]

gracias

[VA Advogado]

I only wish it was 34 cents instead of 45 cents.  LINK

[sneakers]

The scene of the three firemen raising the flag is probably the most appropriate. Good choice President Bush!

[WIladyconservative]

Here's another one.

[Always Right]

President Bush personally selected a controversial photo of three white firefighters

What a bigot. A real man would have created a new picture with a black man, a hispanic man, and a female....

[goldstategop]

Uh. Where's the NAACLP to protest the unveiling of this racist Confederate stamp? Bwahahaha!!!

[Corporate Law]

Thank you President Bush for doing what is right and honoring the men who actually did that act.

[mewzilla]

Well, the extra eleven cents is going to a 9-11 charity, isn't it? Though I hope someone makes sure that the money gets where it's supposed to go.

[VA Advogado]

Though I hope someone makes sure that the money gets where it's supposed to go.

Don't fear. With the post office in charge it's sure to get where it's suppose to. :)

[LoneGOPinCT]

Is it just me or is there a lack of controversy here? I guess because the firefighters are all white or is it because they are going to put living people on the stamp? (rhetorical of course)

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

To me, it would have been showing prejudice to have changed the men in the picture..... this is the real story, this is how it happened.... to show otherwise would be to pander to the very thing the jessejackson's of the world scream about...

[TomGuy]

Inscription:

First-Class...Heroes USA...2001

The heroes of 9-11 are First Class

[Right_in_Virginia]

Note to Newsmax:

The proposed statue of the photo was controversial, not the photo itself or this stamp.

[EODGUY]

Oh the humanity......a President who actually selects an accurate representation of one of the most heartwrenching, tragic and historically significant atrocities of our time!

Impeached former president clinton probably would have chosen to airbrush chicom uniforms on the firefighters or put himself in the photo.

A conscious effort on the part of our President to depict an historical fact.......any chance this will catch on with the left............NAH.

[vrwinger]

...The Postal Service sent about four or five designs over to the White House, ... And the president, I think, picked this one. He picked the actual photograph - which is unusual, because we don't put live people on stamps," Ackerman said.

So Bush selected one of the choices offered... Where does the controvery come in?

Based on the headline, I expected to read GWB nixed all of the USPS options and picked the photo on his own...

[OldFriend]

Read the other day that the Post Office officials were grumbling about the choice as they prefer not to have stamps with living people honored! Wouldn't surprise me in the least at their dismay at this particular stamp. They have refused to have a stamp honoring the Purple Heart so we know exactly where they are coming from.

[ClancyJ]

A real man would have created a new picture with a black man, a hispanic man, and a female....

When a black man, a hispanic man, and a female do something as symbolic as these three did - he will.

We are portraying history not changing history. This was done through no planning, captured by a photographer and it captured the whole content of what happened. To change or alter this actual moment in time - takes away the wonder of the incidence and its capture on film.

Amid total destruction, our firemen find a flag and raise it. This represents to the world that we are not destroyed and it shows the calibre of the American people who amid horror take the step to raise the American flag.

If you can't see the significance of the moment and the power - you are blinded by racism.

[packrat35]

Actually 8 cents will go to charity and the other 3 cents goes to the post office. I heard this on the news when they were doing the unvieling.

[Always Right]

If you can't see the significance of the moment and the power - you are blinded by racism.

Actually, I am blinded by sarcasm.

[Always Right]

And a homosexual, and a person in a wheel chair, a blind person, a deaf person, a bottle nose dolphin, a giant redwood, an oregon sucker fish...

Good idea. And they should be raising a UN flag. The homosexual may be trying to raise something else, but that type of material is better suited for our elementary chidren.

[WIladyconservative]

Read the other day that the Post Office officials were grumbling about the choice as they prefer not to have stamps with living people honored! Wouldn't surprise me in the least at their dismay at this particular stamp. They have refused to have a stamp honoring the Purple Heart so we know exactly where they are coming from.

What a treat for the honored individuals to be able to hand down a living treasure (the stamp) to their children and grandchildren. Too bad they didn't imortalize the famous Iwo Jima vets the same way!

[Mike Darancette]

What a bigot. A real man would have created a new picture with a black man, a hispanic man, and a female....

Shouldn't there be a Muslim-American on the stamp also.

[aardvark1]

What we really should have done is called Hollywood to audition the perfect mix of people and races and then we could have had them pose for several photos. Besides, if Hollywood had done it, it would have been much more real.

[kapn kuek]

But it was not known until Sunday that Bush himself, and not the Postal Service, made the final decision on the stamp.

One more reason to be proud of our President, George W Bush.

[Sabertooth]

"And the president, I think, picked this one. He picked the actual photograph - which is unusual, because we don't put live people on stamps," Ackerman said.

Not always true. Here are two examples of live Americans on postage stamps:

President Bush did the right thing.

[OldFriend]

Don't forget a woman in a wheelchair!

[Attillathehon]

And the president, I think,

The key words here are I think. Not that it matters. I'm delighted he chose this design for the stamp. I just wanted to point out that the people who write these things, know absolutely nothing, and yet they speak with authority and their assumptions become truth.

[jackbill]

Good catch. I was aware of the Iwo Jima stamp - which had "living" people on it, but I'd forgotten the moon job.

[LoveUSA]

What a bigot. A real man would have created a new picture with a black man, a hispanic man, and a female....

But it seems to me they did doctor the picture...I think the fireman on the left was a bit paunchier in the real photo.

[oyez]

President Bush did the right thing.

It best to keep this image as it is. The stamp will be around collectors for decades. Why try to put more into the picture or take away from it? That would be pointless and cheap.

[Sabertooth]

Good catch. I was aware of the Iwo Jima stamp - which had "living" people on it, but I'd forgotten the moon job.

Thanks. Check it out...

[Steve_Seattle]

However, it is true that there has been a policy that living Americans are not portrayed on postage stamps. Whether this is a matter of law or policy I don't know, but I think the purpose of the rule is to prevent politicians and presidents from using the postal service to promote themselves, as is often done in dictatorships. There is obviously no such intent here, but this stamp still might not be allowable under long-standing postal service policy.

[Steve_Seattle]

"the Iwo Jima stamp"

Were any of the people in that stamp still alive when it was issued? It was issued decades after the event.

[Steve_Seattle]

"First Man on the Moon"

Good point - I'd forgotten about that one. The main point of the prohibition of portraying living Americans on stamps is to prevent a president from issuing stamps of himself and thereby establishing a personal cult which would threaten democracy. Stamps which portray unnamed Americans engaging in patriotic or notable actions do not violate the spirit of that rule.

[Steve_Seattle]

" . . .a bottle nose dolphin, a giant redwood . . ."

LOL

[Alas]

I too wish it were 34 cents, as a result, I'll not be using it, no way is the red cross or any of the government dole out folks getting anymore of my money.At least not voluntarily.

Mark

[Steve_Seattle]

I'd forgotten that there were two Iwo Jima stamps, one issued in the forties, one recently. So now we have at at least two examples of stamps that featured living Americans.

[d14truth]

What about Elvis? {;~)

[Sabertooth]

Were any of the people in that stamp still alive when it was issued? It was issued decades after the event.

In 1945 the post office issued a stamp titled "Iwo Jima" commemorating the Marine Corps and depicting the flag raising on Mount Suribachi. The stamp was issued on July 11, 1945 in Washington, DC. [Scott 929]. Mellone's catalog of cachets list 61 known covers for the Iwo Jima stamp.
LINK.

[Sabertooth]

(((ping))))