October 20, 2007
But they support the troops!
There are times when tar and feathers are called for -- and the despicable person responsible for this deserves a good helping of both.
From customers to congressmen, the removal of dozens of photos of U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan – many of them with relatives who use the Paso Robles Post Office, where the pictures had been on display for years behind the counter – inspired outrage Friday.
The photos were taken down after a customer complained that the display was pro-war. When the issue came to the attention of the regional postal center, they asked that Paso Robles postmaster Mike Milby and his staff take them down because they violate a regulation against displays of non-postal business material at any U.S. post office.
“It’s an emotional issue and people look at their post office as a hub of the community, but the post office is there to do postal business and it’s not a place to post things or make displays,” said postal spokesman Richard Maher.
Two signs posted at the postal counter Friday said “We are being forced to remove the pictures from out wall of our boys and girls in the military. Please ask for your pictures back.”
Clerks were constantly barraged with questions about why the display had gone down Friday, which most people expressing dismay that the photos had been removed.
Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) weighed in on the removal after his office was besieged with dozens of phone calls from constituents upset about the removal.
“Supporting our local heroes’ bravery and sacrifice is common sense. That is why I am troubled with the Paso Robles Post Office’s removal of pictures honoring the sacrifice of our brave men and women serving in the Armed Services. I am in contact with the Postal Service to get a clear answer of why this happened and determine what actions can be taken,” the congressman said in a statement.
McCarthy is going to try to get the pictures put back up, said his spokesman Nick Bouknight, even if it requires changing the postal regulations to do it.
I've been in the Paso Robles post office; the wall of photos is -- was -- deeply moving, a community's show of support for those who volunteered to defend us all -- and the families they left behind.
That some miserable, anti-military, anti-war activist (who no doubt claims to "support the troops!") would demand the pictures be taken down is simply infuriating.
That they were removed is mind-blowing.
Isn't it interesting that it's okay to post pictures of assorted rapists, kidnappers, terrorists and murderers -- as long as they're on the F.B.I.'s most wanted list -- but photos of America's all-volunteer citizen-soldiers are prohibited?
Shame on the Postal Service.
And shame on us, for allowing American society to devolve in the last decade into the kind of place where the (over)sensitive nature of one bellyaching whiner requires the rest of us to cave and cater to the whims of the professional carping class.
Posted by Mike Lief at October 20, 2007 12:30 PM
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