Baby boomers, antibiotics, and slews of Slinkies

By Margaux Wexberg

You have two days left to put your 33 cents in. As February comes to an end, so does balloting to determine which people, events, and trends will be honored by the U.S. Postal Service's Celebrate the Century in its 1980s series of commemorative stamps.

Celebrate the Century is the Postal Service's attempt to weave the fabric of our nation's history and character into very small rectangles, with sticky stuff on the back. However, the USPS should not propose that they have achieved any notable historical or cultural feat. Celebrate the Century is not the "virtual field trip through the 20th century" that Postal Service press releases claim. It is, at best, a somewhat entertaining and mildly informative exercise in self-aggrandizing publicity and political correctness.

Since the so-called "stamp and education" program began last February, sets of 15 images commemorating the 1900s, '10s, '20s, and '30s have made their way to a post office near you. The latest set, released Thurs., Feb. 18th, celebrates the 1940s with another five minute stop to see the sights before we pile back on the bus and head on to the '50s.

According to Einar V. Dyhrkopp, chairman of the Postal Service Board of Governors, "The '40s were a decade which began with a World War and ended in victory and the beginning of prosperity." The series of stamps attempts to capture this ridiculously broad and abstract definition with titles such as "Abstract Expressionism," "Postwar Baby Boom," "Antibiotics Save Lives," "TV Entertains America," "Women Support War Effort," and "Slinky Craze Begins." It would seem that, in the eyes of the USPS, war plus babies plus TV equals 10 years' worth of American history. Oh, and throw a Slinky in there somewhere.

Even if you do not immediately dismiss the USPS's endeavor to represent an American century in a handful of stamp-sized graphics as utterly impossible, you still cannot help but recognize the daunting scope and entangling complexity of such a project.

For starters, recall your U.S. history textbook from high school. That thing was heavy. And, if I remember correctly, the print was so small it was nearly illegible. Now consider the section of the text that pertained to the 20th century—it was a good chunk, I'll bet. Certainly more than 150 stamps' worth. And, as I'm sure we've all come to recognize in our wanderings through the stacks, infinitely more pages have been written on the subject beyond the offerings of our high school days. New sources constantly appear in our collective attempt to better represent the history of this country with a respectable measure of accuracy, depth, and fairness.

If we ask Yale about the scope of 20th century American history and culture, we find an entire department, American Studies, devoted in large part to its study. In the face of such a wealth of scholarly exploration and analysis, how are we to consider the fruits of the USPS's "investigation" worthy of anything more than an offhand anecdote about the time your Slinky got so tangled it was unrecognizable?

To fully understand the many ways in which the Postal Service has overreached itself, consider the "educational" aspect of the Celebrate the Century program. To prepare the next generation of voters, the USPS offers packages to teachers to help them inform their students about the people, events, and trends that have characterized the country over the past 100 years. At the Celebrate the Century website, teachers can find "Topic Cards" for their lessons. The current cards address the 1980s, the decade for which stamps are presently being selected. They include blurbs regarding the role of Cabbage Patch Kids, gene mapping, personal computers, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the San Francisco 49ers. Also available is a "Resource Guide," which is perhaps the only valuable aspect of the site—it instructs us to look elsewhere for our information.

Of course, any education is better than none. To read a one-page summary of public school desegregation (a winner in the upcoming '50s collection), the Vietnam War ('60s), or the Women's Rights Movement ('70s), having known nothing before, is to increase one's knowledge. Even their frivolous counterparts—bits on teen fashions of the '50s, the '60s Barbie frenzy, and the yellow Smiley Face of the '70s—are better recognized than ignored.

However, in recognizing the Smiley Face and the Slinky, we must not forget the countless equally relevant, and probably more important, things left unrecognized.

Margaux Wexberg is a sophomore in Pierson.

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