Which is exactly what will get the attention of a bureaucracy.
Darlene's mother's information is correct: no new stamp this year. But it materialises that the USPS has pulled this stunt before. And whether the gloomy comments the Postal Clerk made to Darlene's mother that staff mentioning Christmas has been banned and no more Madonna and Child stamps would appear ever remains to be seen. It would be nice if the USPS issued a statement about it. They should be asked.
What is irrefutable, inspecting the Postal Service's web sites, is that seasonal gestures have been cut back to the perfunctory - seemingly scaled down to match references to Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. And, tellingly, mention of the disgusting and repulsive word "Christmas" has been virtually eradicated. It does not appear at all on the Stamp Issue Index itself, or on the "Holiday" list of available stamps, where last year's Madonna and Child is the only Christian-themed design of eleven.
Looks like that Postal Clerk's intuition on his employer's intentions is plausible.
Equally interesting are the savage and venomous responses Darlene's Place brought out.
"Oh, no. It's the "War Against Christmas" crap again...a conservative whiner who complains that the US Postal Service is insufficiently reverent and Christian.."
says the Pharyngula blog
From the Darlene's Place Comments section:
From " Strange 1" (email)
Poor uneducated faux Christ followers. Stop believing in your fantasy world and give the pagans back their holiday. Then maybe we can talk truth about this whole easter fable that took also misappropriates reality. Your god is not superior in this country any more than mine is. If you don't like it, get out, otherwise shut your patheteic wannabe martyr whining.
From "jerry" (e mail)
There is no war on Christmas. However, there is a popular myth of a war on Christmas,... and a need of some Christians, despite being an overwhelminingly dominant political and cultural force, to feel persecuted. How much government support of Christianity do people need before they stop crying persecution?
Others were more uncouth.
Generally, those complaining about the abolition of Christmas are astonishingly mild in their remarks, never demand exclusivity of representation for their festival, and almost never attempt to evaluate what motivates the other side.
Quite the reverse characterises their opponents. Evidently these people feel there is a lot at stake.
The great Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest frequently said: "War means fighting, and fighting means killing." That is clearly what - no doubt in a strictly cultural sense - the enemies of Chistmas feel.
