Page 557 - Demo

Post-Pandemic551rolling through a stop sign, or your insurance company denied a claim, or your credit-card company charged you an extra fee, there was little you could do except suck it up. But Trump stood up to everyone and told them all to go to Hell%u2014and his followers admired that, and wished they act the same way to their own oppressors.One of the important tenets in the philosophy of life Lynn and I had developed was that people exist to learn and grow. We also firmly believed that the difficulties we all experience in life have the potential to teach us important lessons. And if we don%u2019t learn a particular lesson the first time around, we will be given another opportunity in the future, perhaps in another lifetime. So, we looked at the adversity that was sure to come with Trump%u2019s second term as President as a learning opportunity for millions of people%u2014but we understood they might not learn their lessons for some time. Even so, the prospects of Trump occupying the most powerful office in the world still saddened us a great deal.%u2022%u2022%u2022%u2022%u2022In September of 2024, just a few months before the presidential election, I was perusing eBay and spotted some fake stamps featuring Donald Trump. Such items are often referred to by %u201cserious%u201d philatelists as Cinderella stamps, because they are a poor stepchild to real stamps. Cinderella stamps include many types of stickers and labels that may look like postage stamps but aren%u2019t. The Trump stamps I saw were all produced by a single individual who had an antique perforating machine. They were quite well designed, and were all derogatory, casting Trump in a bad light. For example, they highlighted his indictments, how often he told lies, and his love of foreign dictators, etc. In all, there were over three dozen designs, many available in miniature sheets, and I was fascinated by them. After contacting the seller, I was able to negotiate a special price for an example of each of his designs.I also purchased some Inauguration Day covers (envelopes cancelled on the day of Trump%u2019s first swearing in) that also cast the man in a bad light. Then, in order to balance all these disparaging items, I decided to add to my growing collection the various stamps