I want to clear a couple of things regarding the stamp I wrote about in the previous blog.
The stamp was first issued on Aug 1, 2001, over a month before the "9/11" attack on America. It's been reissued several times. It was originally a 34 cent stamp, it's now 44 cents.
George W. Bush was the president when it first came out, not Obama. Many people think Obama authorized the initial printing.
It's pretty, but I'll probably choose from one of the many other designs the Post Office has available when I go in to pick up my next stamps. In fairness to all, I try not to support any organized religion.
This morning I got an e-mail from a well meaning individual who is trying his best to spread helpful information among the people he cares about. There's nothing wrong with that. It's the ideal use of electronic messaging, in fact, and a very honorable use of the internet. Far better than sending some of the stuff I get daily I assure you.
The e-mail was telling everyone on their mailing list to be wary of a new stamp depicted thereon, that was issued by the US Postal Service. I'll try to paste a copy of it on this blog. The stamp honors two religious holidays that are important to Muslims. There it is. I said the "M word", and I'm going to plunge fearlessly ahead with my diatribe, anyway.
The holidays are Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha
. Al-Fitr is the holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting. Al-Adha is the Festival of Sacrifice at the end of Hajj, a 3 day holiday which marks the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
I've been cautioned not to buy these very pretty stamps. The e-mail beseeches me to not put them on Valentines or letters for any reason. It seems that doing so means that I support terrorism. Huh????? That correlation seems a bit of a stretch to me. Up front, I'll state unequivocally: I do not support terrorism.
I have two observations that I wish to pass on to my few readers, and hope they take a moment to think about them: 1.) There are Christmas stamps, Star of David stamps, Simpson family stamps, and stamps depicting other cartoon characters, animals, celebrities, and geographical locations. 2.) Maybe its time to give the Muslim religion a little space. If the 'man on the street' American would show more tolerance, maybe the radical Muslims would see non Muslims in a different light. Probably not overnight, but in due course. America stands for many things, one of which is the 'freedom of religion'. Is it not then un-American to dis-respect another's right to practice any religion they wish?
I haven't seen a tabulation of the facts, but I wonder what the historical ratio of non-Muslims terrorists to Muslim terrorists is. I hope someone can take a look at history and check out the figures. Maybe we should be even more afraid of some other group. Possibly there have been more left handed red-heads, or blond haired blue-eyed air hostesses, or cribbage players involved in terrorism than Muslims. Okay, probably not, but hey! If we're going to target someone let's explore all the possibilities.
