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For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations July 9-10, 2005:

Political Correctness

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries. 

Once again, we're reminded that stamps really do matter, at least as symbols of their 
countries.

Mexico is being very defensive about its recent stamps honoring a comic book character 
who looks and acts like a racist stereotype. Americans who criticize the Memin Pinguin 
stamps just don't understand Mexican culture, we're told, and besides, didn't the U-S 
have a cartoon character named Speedy Gonzales?

Well, you didn't see a stamp in the Looney Tunes series for Speedy, did you? Nor has 
there been a stamp for one of the most popular radio programs EVER in the U-S, 
"Amos 'n Andy," even when the Postal Service was celebrating the pop culture of the 
Nineteen Twenties. And President Clinton vetoed a stamp commemorating the first atomic 
bombing, as insensitive to Japan.

Time hasn't been kind to some potential stamp subjects, and so there are a few that 
just won't be seen on stamps in the Twenty-First Century. Because postage stamps DO 
represent their countries.

And that's Stamp Collecting this week. 

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News. 

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