Norton To Celebrate D.C. Flag Stamp Issuance Tuesday (9/1/08)

Norton to Celebrate D.C. Flag Stamp Issuance Tuesday

September 1, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC - Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) will join Postmaster General John Potter tomorrow morning, Tuesday, Sept. 2, at 10 a.m. in a commemoration of the "Flags of Our Nation," stamp series, which contain large stamps featuring the flag of each state, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. The ceremony will be held at Post Office Headquarters, 475 L'Enfant Plaza, S.W.

"This time, they certainly did not forget us," Norton said, "and we're grateful." The Congresswoman has repeatedly called various agencies to account when the District was left out of symbols issued of importance to the American people. She contacted the U.S. Postal Service when the District was left out of the 50 state stamp series, the agency immediately corrected the error a few years ago, and Norton helped design the D.C. stamp, which circulated and became a collector's item. However, again last year, she persuaded the U.S. Postal Service to return the D.C. post mark in time for Christmas after the postmark all but disappeared after the anthrax attacks led to partial processing of D.C. mail at Maryland facilities. "Stamps and postmarks are only symbols, unlike our pending D.C. voting rights bill," Norton said. "If we allow our country to exclude us from the symbols of citizenship, it becomes even easier to deny us the benefits of citizenship itself."

In another omission, it took Norton four sessions of Congress to pass the D.C. coin bill. She almost immediately got the bill passed in the House, but not in the Senate after the District was overlooked for the circulating quarter. When the Democrats took control of Congress last year, the D.C. coin was attached to the omnibus appropriations bill, and the D.C. quarter is due to begin circulating in January. Several years ago, Norton got the National Park Service (NPS) at Union Station to fly the D.C. flag after residents noticed it was missing among the state flags flown there. In addition, this summer, Norton complained about the failure by NPS to fly the D.C. flag when residents reported that the flags of the states replaced by the American flags at the Washington Monument during the Independence Day celebration.

However, still pending is Norton's bill for a D.C. statue in the Capitol.