Former Postmaster General Benjamin F. Bailar recently resigned from the secretive Citizen’s Advisory Stamp Committee because he believes the U.S. Postal Service should not “prostitute” itself by featuring stamps with pop culture subjects like Harry Potter.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Bailar’s letter of resignation, dated July 23, was addressed to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe and conveyed his disappointment with the USPS.
“The stamp program should celebrate the things that are great about the United States and serve as a medium to communicate those things to a world-wide audience,” Bailar wrote. “To prostitute that goal in the pursuit of possibly illusory profits does not make sense to me.”
Members of the Citizen’s Advisory Stamp Committee, a panel that decides what images and themes should be featured on postage stamps, were upset that they were not consulted about the decision to launch a Harry Potter stamp series.
The U.S. Postal Service’s efforts to sell stamps with an “abundance of pretty and popular culture subjects” is creating a stamp program that Bailar said “lacks gravitas.”
In light of the efforts to commercialize, Bailar even proposed abolishing the selection committee: “Certainly the USPS does not need an expensive committee to know what will sell.”
