GOING POSTAL MORAL DILEMMA

A friend of ours inherited hundreds of old postage stamps from his mother; he uses them on everything he mails to us. On this year's Christmas card (see envelope picture) he used:

2 five-cent stamps honoring President Kennedy
2 five-cent stamps honoring American music
2 five-cent stamps honoring the fine arts
2 five-cent stamps emblazoned with "Search For Peace"
1 six-cent Leif Erikson commemorative stamp

I love them and all are especially meaningful to me, but now I face a moral dilemma: the stamps are not cancelled. What should I do? Peel them off? Use them again? A MORAL DILEMMA!

I don't collect stamps as a philatelist would, but I have a sizable collection, as I love stamps which are significant to me; I don't want to "keep" them; I like to use them when I send items to people I know who will also appreciate them. For example, I still have 29-cent Elvis stamps which I reserve for fellow fanatics; I use Mark Twain stamps to correspond with a fellow devotee, and I use snowman stamps for Christmas cards for my friends I know who love snowmen! Last week I prepared a package to send to my friend Patty and it had the following stamps attached:

RAY CHARLES
ROSA PARKS
HELEN HAYES
JOSE FERRER
MILES DAVIS
MEDAL OF HONOR
ANNIVERSARY OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
ANNIVERSARY OF THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON

I took my box of additional stamps with me in case I needed to add more postage.

When I went to the post office the clerk asked, in a loud voice, "Do you want to send this the cheapest way possible?" I didn't like being asked that, and I replied, quietly, "What are my options?" She began rattling off a list of items such as bottles and explosives which could not be mailed, and she also mentioned books. I said, "Yes, there's a book inside." She said, "Then you have to go medium." I didn't know what that meant, but I asked, "So, if I lied and said I didn't have a book, then I could mail it less EXPENSIVELY?" I could tell she did not appreciate my sarcasm. I wanted the $50.00 insurance for the package and she told me the amount of the additional cost and as she started to stamp the additional postage, I raised my hand--and my voice--and said, "NO, I have the stamps here; how many more will it take?" She told me that it would require 7 additional stamps; I stood there going through my numerous stamps, deciding which ones to apply which Patty might enjoy and I did not hand them to the clerk but applied each one by myself.

I hope Patty's stamps are not cancelled and that she will use them again! WHY would that clerk even presume to think I would want to send a package "the cheapest way possible"? Yes, I'm laughing at myself!