When Postage Stamps Are Bad Role Models
America's children have been saved. The feckless daredevils of the United States Postal Service will no longer encourage them to perform a headstand without a safety helmet.
At the beginning of 2013, the postal service unveiled a series of stamps inspired in part by First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" anti-obesity campaign. Titled "Just Move," the 15-stamp collection, originally scheduled for release in 2014, featured drawings of children in various athletic activities.
In October the plan hit a snag. According to Linn's Stamp News, the postal service invited Michelle Obama to participate in the stamps' introduction ceremony. It turned out that neither she nor the President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition had seen the stamps before. When members of the council saw the images, they objected. The children were frolicking unsafely! In one stamp, a child was skateboarding without kneepads. In another, a child was jumping into the water cannonball-style.
So the series has been put on hold. Although initial reports said the stamps would be destroyed, a spokesperson for the postal service says it has not yet decided what to do with the dangerous images.
