But now we have stamps for secular nonbelievers in four varieties, a stamp for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, a stamp for Kwanzaa, a stamp for Muslims commemorating two of their festivals, and finally a stamp for Christians: Madonna and Child.
Something for everyone! Atheists and secularists celebrate the “winter holiday season” as a purely non-religious time of year. Those stamps would be politically correct in public schools where Christmas is no longer celebrated and Christmas carols are verboten. The four stamps offered depict a reindeer, a snowman, a toy soldier who looks like Santa Claus, and a ginger cookie shaped like a doll. But they all have that Christmas look just like all of those tinsel and evergreen decorations at the local shopping mall. There is just no escaping Christmas, no matter how much the atheists try.
The four secular "winter holiday" stamps now available from the U.S. Postal Service.
The Hanukkah stamp depicts a lighted Menorah. Known as the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah is an eight-day holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt. The small amount of olive oil used in the rededication burned miraculously for eight days. Thus, this is a very joyous holiday. Many Jewish American families nowadays find it okay to celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas since there have been many mixed marriages in the last few decades. So it is not uncommon to find Christmas trees in Jewish homes. After all, Jesus was Jewish.
In President George H. Bush’s 2004 Presidential Kwanzaa Message, he more or less gave a summary of what Kwanzaa is all about. He said that, "During Kwanzaa, millions of African Americans and people of African descent gather to celebrate their heritage and ancestry. Kwanzaa celebrations provide an opportunity to focus on the importance of family, community, and history, and to reflect on the Nguzo Saba or seven principles of African culture. These principles emphasize unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith."
Cooperative economics is another word for socialism. The creator of Kwanzaa is Ron Karenga who was greatly influenced by the black nationalist movement which at one time called for a separate black state carved out of the United States. The word Kwanzaa is derived from a Swahili phrase meaning “first fruits.” The first Kwanzaa stamp was issued in 1997.
The Muslim stamp, with its Arabic calligraphy, was first issued by the USPS on September 1, 2001, just ten days before Islamic terrorists murdered almost 3000 innocent human beings in the twin towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. The word Eid means festival or holiday. The stamp commemorates two Islamic festivals: Eid Al-Fitr, which celebrates the end of Ramadan, and Eid Al-Adha, which commemorates the willingness of the Prophet Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael. But in the Holy Bible it is Isaac, born of Sarah, who was going to be sacrificed, not Ishmael, born of Hagar. That’s just one of the biblical distortions found in the Koran.
But the USPS is not interested in theological controversies. After all, in multiculturalism all faiths and cultures are considered to be of equal value. When a nation gives up belief in the exceptionalism of its values, can it still be called a nation or just a very large conglomeration of disparate people who believe in everything and nothing?
I wish the Postal Service would issue a stamp depicting the twin towers of the World Trade Center being hit by the two highjacked passenger planes. A whole series of stamps could be issued showing various phases of the attack by Islamic terrorists. But of course, the Postal Service would never do this for fear of offending our Muslim citizens.
During World War II when Japanese citizens on the West Coast were being rounded up and placed in detention camps, no one was concerned that this would offend Japanese-American citizens. In fact, many Japanese young men were anxious to prove their loyalty to America and joined our armed forces and fought gallantly in their own units, even though their parents were treated like security risks.
However, at Fort Hood, Texas, a Muslim member of our armed services was so hateful of America that he killed 12 fellow soldiers (and one civilian) in cold blood. Apparently, it is dangerous to place Muslim soldiers among their non-Muslim comrades. According to our top military officials, the need for diversity and multiculturalism in our armed services is worth the deaths of these soldiers.
Of course, there is a very simple solution to this problem. Why not create units made up only of Muslim recruits so that they can prove their loyalty to the United States without endangering the rest of our soldiers. Let them do what the Japanese-Americans did in World War II, which gained them the admiration and thankfulness of the American people.
Dr. Samuel L. Blumenfeld is the author of nine books on education including NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education, The Whole Language/OBE Fraud, and The Victims of Dick & Jane and Other Essays. Of NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education, former U.S. Senator Steve Symms of Idaho said: “Every so often a book is written that can change the thinking of a nation. This book is one of them.” Mr. Blumenfeld’s columns have appeared in such diverse publications as Reason, The New American, The Chalcedon Report, Insight, Education Digest, Vital Speeches, WorldNetDaily, and others.
