FIRST AMENDMENT

The new McCarthyism?

By Sam Pfeifle

First, word came out that the new Strokes (playing Portland on Saturday) album would be held up because one of the songs on the record was disparaging toward New York City cops. Okay, that makes some sense. No reason to add insult to injury and sales probably would have been hurt anyway.

Then there’s the story of Biddeford city councilor Jim Grattelo, who called for the resignation of another councilor, Richard Rhames, after he said that “we all have blood on our hands” in reference to American foreign policy, at a vigil for the WTC victims. There might be a grain of sense in Grattelo’s call for Rhames’s head because while Rhames has the right to voice his opinions, he certainly chose an inappropriate time to speak up.

Now there’s the story of Longfellow books and their greeting cards. And this makes very little sense at all.

Chris Bowe, one of the owners of the book store on Monument Square, reports that he used to have a few greeting cards carrying the likeness of George Bush which poked a little fun at our sometimes goofy Commander in Chief. No longer.

“They were pulled by the card rep,” says Bowe. “She was instructed to for political reasons. She came in and ripped them up and gave me a credit.”

She ripped them up? Yes, “They were destroyed,” says Rowe.

Mike Keiser, Vice-President and co-owner of the Recycled Greeting Cards company offers up a simple explanation. “They were funny before,” he says. “They stopped being funny on September 11.”

Obviously, the company has the right to sell whatever they want, but Bowe, for one, wonders where the censoring of speech will stop. “It reminded me of Orwell’s 1984,” he says. “These are harmless cards, you know, birthday cards. I don’t care if it was Bush naked on the inside. I mean this is still the United States.”

And, on one of the cards, Bowe and Keiser agree. Bowe thought it particularly silly that one card, depicting the President leaning against a chair in the oval office, was pulled. “Happy Birthday and Best Wishes,” the cover read, and inside: “Thought this would look nice on your desk.”

What could be wrong with that?

Nothing, says Keiser. “We rely on our local service reps to use their judgment,” he says. “We agree that that one was fine. Unfortunately the rep made a mistake.” He emphasizes that of the 30 cards depicting the President, at least two or three were supposed to be left on the shelf.

Keiser also says that he’s searching the rest of the company’s 8000 cards for inappropriate material. Though he’s not sure what that might be, he offers a recent example.

“I just said ‘no’ to a funny cartoon that was faxed over,” he says. “There was a husband and wife floating in their pool and there was a sea mine floating nearby. The wife says ‘What on earth? Frank, look out!’ Inside it read, ‘Hope your birthday is the bomb. I faxed it back saying, ‘No, not a good topic.”