No jokes, but funny.
---
Posted on 10/30/2002 11:47:36 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
What is good for the U.S. Mint is evidently not acceptable to the U.S. Postal Service.
A post office in Montgomery north of Houston recently learned that it had to remove a framed poster of the national motto "In God We Trust" because it violates postal regulations.
The donated 16-by-20-inch poster, which is matted and secured in a gold frame, displays "In God We Trust" in large white letters over the American flag colors. It states at the bottom that the "national motto was approved by Congress and President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956."
Retired chemical engineer Frank P. Williamson spent $3,000 purchasing 300 of the posters, had them framed, and then donated them to city halls, schools, libraries, police stations and post offices across Montgomery County, where they've hung since this summer.
Cut and Shoot postmistress Ida Miera vowed Wednesday that the poster, which still hangs in her post office and two others in the county, will come down "over my dead body."
The town of Montgomery seemed like a particularly logical place for the poster, Williamson said, because the historic town, population 486, was home to Texas' first secretary of state who designed Texas' Lone Star flag.
"After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, I thought it would be good to promote our national motto. I know that the only reason we've been successful in the past is that our forefathers put their trust in God way back," Williamson said. "I don't see what's wrong with a patriotic display that makes a reference to God. "
Postal spokesman David Lewin, in Houston, said the Montgomery post office had not been authorized to hang the poster and was forced to remove it because it "did not fit within postal guidelines."
He pointed to postal regulation 232 under sections about "depositing literature" and "soliciting and electioneering" which state that the posting of most handbills, fliers, pamphlets, signs, placards and posters in post office lobbies is prohibited.
He said the only exceptions are things such as FBI wanted posters, missing child posters, stamp art contests, and community bulletin board items that are "informational but not permanent in nature."
"We don't know what is happening at all 40,000 post offices around the country but we try to have them adhere to our regulations," he said. "Sometimes we hire a `mystery shopper' to visit area post offices and make sure they are in compliance."
The motto was first used on a 2-cent coin minted in 1864, and now federal law dictates its inscription on all coins and paper money. It is also prominently engraved in the wall above the speaker's dais in the U.S. House of Representatives and appears over the entrance to the U.S. Senate chamber.
Miera, who operates the contract post office in a small red building in Cut and Shoot, has the framed poster on the wall behind the counter where she sells stamps atop a piece of fabric, which she bought at a discount store after the terrorist attack, that depicts the Statue of Liberty and states "God Bless America."
"I am not taking this down," she said. "I don't know why in the world somebody would not want it. This is what our boys have always fought for -- God and country. It would be plumb stupid to remove it."
A Montgomery postal supervisor learned about the national motto poster after several post offices in the county asked about displaying it, Lewin said.
Williamson said that when he talked to postal supervisor C.O. Sylvester about the poster, he was told that the post office cannot receive any gifts.
"He (Sylvester) said what if somebody wanted to display the Iraq flag or advertise the Ku Klux Klan rally that is planned for Saturday in the park across the street from the post office. If you take one, then you have to take them all," Williamson said.
Williamson, who said his brother's post office in Nashville has a gallery of photographs of country western singers, has sent letters to U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Woodlands; U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and U.S. Postmaster General John Potter protesting the removal.
Hutchison could not be reached for comment. Brady's chief of staff, Doug Centilli, said Brady did not see a problem with such a poster in the post office and had asked Potter for an explanation.
"Brady is on record, along with most every other members of the House of Representatives, as encouraging the display of the national motto in public buildings," said Centilli.
He said the House resolution supporting public display of the motto adopted two years ago will probably be presented in the next session.
Montgomery County Judge Alan B. Sadler said he has not had any complaints since the commissioners ordered the posters put in all the county's libraries. The head librarian had asked the county attorney's office whether the poster might be a violation of the constitutional amendment prohibiting the government from promoting religion.
The county's assistant attorney, Robert Rosenquist, recommended that they not hang the poster to avoid a possible court battle. While the courts have upheld the motto as "proper" for coins and currency, the courts have not said whether it was proper for libraries, his opinion stated. The commissioners decided to ignore the opinion and put the posters up anyway.
Karyl Palmisano with Mainstream Montgomery County opposed displaying the poster when it came before the commissioners court, taking issue with the organization that sold the posters to Williamson, "because they were bought from the American Family Association which represents the religious right. I see it totally as a violation of church and state."
Whether the posters remain in post offices will ultimately be determined by the postmaster general, Lewin said.
Heard any good lawyer jokes lately?
Maybe someone should suggest she look up the Constitution and figure out which amendment that might be.
.
.
A good start.
What religion would that be promoting? The alternative is what? Satanism?
Shhh, I'm retired, running a little business on a part time basis.
When I ship product, I use United Parcel Service or Federal Express.
You can order mailers from them and they will deliver for free. It's a great deal. This way you don't have to subsidize the tit-sucker based Post Office headquartered in Washington, DC.
BTW: www.BulletBras.net.
Cheers, Mark
It seems like diverse = "less whites". If you have a basketball team which is 80% black and then replace a white player with a black player, you've just made the team more diverse.
11 non-white to 2 white
Every time I see something like that, "the time of the Gentiles" is over keeps running through my mind.
---------
Luke 21
And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am [Christ]; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.
But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end [is] not by and by.
Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute [you], delivering [you] up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.
And it shall turn to you for a testimony.
Settle [it] therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:
For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and [some] of you shall they cause to be put to death.
And ye shall be hated of all [men] for my name's sake.
But there shall not an hair of your head perish.
In your patience possess ye your souls.
And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.
For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;
When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.
So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.
Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and [so] that day come upon you unawares.
For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
The USPS receives no tax money except for the cost of Congressionl Franked mail,
and the reduced rate portion of non-profit bulk mail.
Both of those are mandated by Congress.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.