Not always true. Here are two examples of live Americans on postage stamps:
President Bush did the right thing.
Posted on 03/18/2002 3:28:50 AM PST by 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
The proposed statue of the photo was controversial, not the photo itself or this stamp.
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.
...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...
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.
Actually, I am blinded by sarcasm.
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.
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!
Shouldn't there be a Muslim-American on the stamp also.
One more reason to be proud of our President, George W Bush.
Not always true. Here are two examples of live Americans on postage stamps:
President Bush did the right thing.
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.
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.
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.
Thanks. Check it out...
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