Per the letter below it seems kind of disrespectful, but maybe it’s necessary given the demands on his time. Was it disrespectful or not to have stamped signatures on these letters to the families of fallen soliders?
Report: Rumsfeld will start signing condolences
Defense chief had been stamping letters to fallen GIs’ families
I guess you sign your letters with the stamp you’ve got, not the pen you’d like to use… :rolleyes:
Reminds me of When the Tigers Broke Free by Pink Floyd
"It was just before dawn
One miserable morning in black 'forty four.
When the forward commander
Was told to sit tight
When he asked that his men be withdrawn.
And the Generals gave thanks
As the other ranks held back
The enemy tanks for a while.
And the Anzio bridgehead
Was held for the price
Of a few hundred ordinary lives.
And kind old King George
Sent Mother a note
When he heard that father was gone.
It was, I recall,
In the form of a scroll,
With gold leaf and all.
And I found it one day
In a drawer of old photographs, hidden away.
And my eyes still grow damp to remember
His Majesty signed
With his own rubber stamp.
…(continues)
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/When-the-Tigers-broke-free-lyrics-Pink-Floyd/D360E135DA69F15948256B250030E859
I find it distasteful. If you’re not going to sign it, then don’t bother stamping it like just another paper that needs to be dealt with. It doesn’t sit right with me.
I think it’s tacky. If the situation were that he had to sign 1,000 letters in one sitting, then maybe he could get away with stamping. But it’s 1,000 letters over the course of what, 2 years? Very very tacky.
I sign a couple hundred holiday cards at work all at once - signature and “happy holidays” or some other short message - and it takes maybe 3 hours. I find it hard to believe that he cannot find 10 hours total over the course of 2 years to sign letters.
Disgracefully tacky. Doesn’t he understand that stamped autographs are worthless on the secondary market?
What’s the precedent for these sorts of letters?
Tacky. And disgraceful. If a 5 year old can Crayola “thanks for the Leg-o set”, then he can take the time, knowhutImean?
VCNJ~
What I don’t understand is why somebody else can’t sign it.
A real live signature from Joe Nobody would mean much more to me than the stamped signature of Somebody Important.
According to this Reuter’s story, the families have also received condolence ;etters from President Bush – who signs them by hand.
Rumsfeld is so out of touch that he apparently communicates with himself by memo. I just love the phrase in the OP:
If the death count is so high that he can’t keep up with the condolence letters, perhaps he should rethink the execution of the war.
I find it bizarre that people who just lost a loved one can find the emotions left to worry about the signature. Unless Rummy’s magical script can bring people back to life, this is like worrying about getting sunburned when the nukes go off.
I see your point, but speaking as one who may yet find herself in a position to receive such a letter, Rummy’s rubber-stamping condolence letters is simply a symptom of the rather shabby treatment he’s given to military families.
Robin
Wouldn’t your hand cramp up after a couple thousand signatures?
I wonder if he bothers with the tens of thousands who were wounded.
My husband is serving in Afghanistan. If he were to be killed, I would be so grief-stricken that I wouldn’t give a rats arse if I rec’d a letter signed or stamped by The Other Donald.
HOWEVER, being a compassionate human being, for anyone other than my husband, his stamped signature is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard of. I wonder how The Other Donald would feel if Dubya would send him a stamped form letter if his loved one died?
Not if you signed them over the course of a couple years.
I don’t find it bizarre. I imagine the letter announcing a loved one’s death is something one would give a lot of attention to. It would be something read over and over and over again, particularly if it included details about how the death occurred. That big ole stamped signature would definitely draw attention, IMHO.
Finding a stamped signature would indicate that I had just received a basic form letter…something kept on some poor secretary’s computer, ready to print. It removes any illusion of sincerity or care. It would remind me that the death of my loved one was just another hash mark in someone’s “collateral damage” ledger.
Hell yeah I’d be angry.
It matters to the rest of us. He should sign each letter if for no other reason than as a reminder that each one represents someone’s dead child, spouse, parent, friend.
When all added together, he found about an afternoon’s worth of his time signing spread over a couple of years to be more valuable than a thousand lifetimes of his soldiers. Disgraceful.
It’s my understanding that the signatures are not stamped, but machine-signed, which probably doesn’t make a lot of difference in the way this feels to the recipients of the letters. At least it doesn’t look as tacky as an actual rubber stamp.
-mdf
Why is anyone surprised by this revelation? I can’t recall a time when Don Rumsfeld has shown anything resembling genuine compassion for the troops. Not taking the five seconds it’d need to sign a letter sounds like par for the course to me.