The Debate Rages On Over Potter Postage

Even the prestigious Los Angeles Times editorial board has weighed in on the controversy over the new Harry Potter stamps... "Proficiat Postaliosa! If Harry Potter commemorative stamps can cast a solvency spell on the U.S. Postal Service, that's some magic we can get behind. Tradition-bound philatelists should back off from their complaints."

It goes on to say, "Indeed, the Potter stamps combined all the ingredients guaranteed to upset traditionalists — commercial, photographic rather than artistic, and foreign to boot. Postal Service officials didn't even consult the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee — a panel formed more than 50 years ago to recommend stamp subjects that have culturally enduring value — probably in the full knowledge that they were writing a new installment of mail history that might best be titled "Harry Potter and the Philatelic Furor."

It concludes, "The goal of the Postal Service is clear: It hopes to conjure up some cash, to disapparate some of its red ink. In this era of its financial independence from government, that's a necessity, and there are worse ways to accomplish it than with a popular boy wizard, even one who isn't American."

To read the entire opinion piece, click here.