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For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations February 18-19, 2006:

Perspective

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries. 

Stamps are practically guaranteed for Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks, but not for 
another decade, because the Postal Service won't issue stamps for anyone except 
presidents within ten years of their deaths.

A decade adds perspective, a better sense of the person's worth and accomplishments, 
and...well, a re-evaluation if necessary.

Here are two recent examples of rush-to-postage:

South Korea issued a stamp celebrating the accomplishments of a cloning researcher. 
Then a panel found he faked his work.

And two years ago, Austria honored native-son Arnold Schwarzenegger when he became 
governor of California -- local boy makes good. Now, because his state has executions, 
his hometown has removed his name from a stadium and its website.

If only these countries had waited, oh, ten years, they might have changed their minds 
about honoring those men. Or perhaps by then, they'd have been vindicated.

To paraphrase the saying, "Issue stamps in haste, repent in leisure."

And that's Stamp Collecting this week. 

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News. 

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