Promises of Service Arrive With a Special Stamp

A patriotic ceremony and a display of postal employee morale marked the unveiling in Los Angeles on Monday of a new 34-cent stamp portraying the American flag with the inscription “United We Stand.”

Los Angeles Postmaster James A. Smith vowed in a speech that the U.S. Postal Service “will move the mail every day, no matter what the situation” and otherwise serve the public “no matter what the challenge.”

The stamp was commissioned by the post office after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks but came to have a deeper meaning for postal workers after two died from inhaling anthrax spores sent through the mail in the following weeks.

At the event at the Federal Building in Westwood on Monday, Smith said he was proud of the stamp “because the U.S. flag is one of the most recognized symbols of freedom in the world, a symbol of strength and unity.”

Postal service aide Larry Dozier, noting that 100 million of the stamps are available nationwide, urged people “to use these stamps to write someone you love.

“For that matter, use them to write someone you hate,” he joked. “Just don’t put any white powder in with the notes.”

Referring a bit more somberly to the anthrax scare, a Postal Union member looking on who identified himself as Dean Martin said, “We’re not going to let anything get us down. We’re going to put up with whatever comes.”

Another speaker, Norman Yarde, supervisor of letter carriers at the Rimpau Post Office and a warrant officer in the Army Reserve, said that though he was ready to defend the country if called upon, “letter carriers for now are doing what we do best, delivering the mail.”

“The 800,000 employees of the postal service are devoted to that end,” Yarde said.

The ceremony began with four postal employees--Yvonne McGalpin, Robin Johnson, John Black and Lucille Thomas--singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Also speaking was Robert Willcox, one of 66 Los Angeles firefighters who flew in a military aircraft to New York on Sept. 11 to assist at the site of the World Trade Center, which had been destroyed by terrorists.