Stamp honors a man in full

A decade-long struggle to memorialize Paul Robeson, the singer, actor, athlete and civil rights activist blacklisted because of his activism and political beliefs, ended Sunday with the unveiling of a stamp in his honor.

Robeson's athletic skills as a two-time All-American football player for Rutgers College, his starring role in the Broadway smash "Othello" and his rendition of "Ol' Man River" in the musical "Showboat," made him a worldwide sensation.

The son of an escaped slave, he graduated at the top of his class at Rutgers, earned a law degree from Columbia University and briefly practiced law. Robeson could sing in 20 languages and is credited with popularizing African-American spirituals. As an activist he used his popularity to speak out against racism in America, apartheid in Africa and for workers rights here and abroad.

The Paul Robeson 100th Birthday Committee, led by Mark Rogovin of Columbia College, started a campaign in the early 1990s to urge the postal service to choose Robeson. More than 90,000 letters were sent, but the citizen committee that recommends honorees did not grant the request. Officials have never explained why, except to say that they receive more than 50,000 requests each year to honor individuals with a commemorative stamp.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
January 26, 2004

S.Koreans Stick It to Japan Over Controversial Stamp

South Koreans shrugged off official Japanese complaints Friday and queued up at dawn to buy out an entire issue of postage stamps depicting islands at the center of a long territorial dispute between the two Asian neighbors.

All 2.24 million stamps -- 560,000 strips of four stamps -- showing flora and fauna of the rocky outcrops Seoul calls Tokto and Japan refers to as Takeshima sold out in about two hours.

Earlier in Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference Japan would repeat a diplomatic protest it had made several times to Seoul to no avail.

The islands, which lie between the Korean peninsula and Japan, are inhabited only by a garrison of South Korean soldiers stationed there to assert Seoul's control.

Japan has asked South Korea to reconsider the planned stamps since last year, but Seoul refused, saying it was its sovereign right to issue them.

The two countries have constantly disputed the ownership of the islets since the end of World War II. The struggle is felt more acutely in South Korea, which has bitter memories of Japan's often brutal colonial rule over the peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

Their first stamp squabble over the islands was in 1954, when South Korea issued three kinds of Tokto stamps and Japan responded by saying it would not accept mail bearing the stamps.

REUTERS
January 15, 2004

Stamp Challenging Best-Selling Elvis Stamp

The Elvis stamp is the best selling stamp in the history of the U.S. Postal Service, but the king of rock and roll may get licked by the founder of the breast cancer stamp, Sacramento's Dr. Ernie Bodai. Bodai's dream of a stamp to fund breast cancer research went on sale in July 1998. It sells for 45 cents -- the price of first-class postage plus a donation.

"Forty million dollars has been raised for breast cancer research," Postal Service spokesman Ralph Petty said. Sales of the breast cancer stamp are at 500 million compared to 517 million for the Elvis stamp. The Elvis stamp's run ended in the early 1990s.

The breast cancer stamp is running out of time to deliver a new best-selling record -- the stamps go off sale at the close of business Wednesday. "If you think about the fact that 500 million stamps have been sold that means that 1.5 billion people have been exposed to it because someone bought, delivered, and received the stamp. The exposure we've gotten is priceless," Bodai said.

The stamp does not have a postage price on it. It was designed that way so that it could continue to sell despite postage increases. Congress has the power to extend the run of the breast cancer stamp, and could vote to put it back on sale in mid-January.

KCRA
January 06, 2004

Post Office Unveils Disney Stamps Mickey Mouse and Goofy, Bambi and Thumper will soon be on the mail

The Postal Service unveiled a set of stamp designs Tuesday featuring Disney characters. Also included are Donald Duck, Jiminy Cricket, Simba and Pinocchio. The 37-cent self-adhesive stamps will be issued next summer. "The new postage stamps are a tremendous testament to the lasting popularity of Mickey Mouse and other beloved Disney characters," said Mary Beech of Disney Consumer Products.

The characters are on a four-stamp set, the first of three annual sets planned featuring Disney characters. Previously the post office issued a series of stamps featuring cartoon characters from Warner Brothers.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 03, 2004