Editorial: A Christmas grinch

Thursday, Dec. 13, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

Candy Roquemore of Austin, Texas, had a simple wish for Christmas: She wanted to send cards to wounded soldiers. She didn't have anyone in mind, she was just going to address them to injured members of the military.

"I just wanted to say, 'Thank you, sorry you're hurt, and happy holidays,' " she said.

Then she learned she couldn't because the U.S. Postal Service and the Pentagon have rules that prohibit delivering letters that are not addressed to a specific soldier. The rules were put in place after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the anthrax scares. The military fears terrorists could lace cards with a biological agent and address them to any American soldier.

Terry Goodman, spokesman for Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, told the Associated Press that the rules are due to "security concerns because it's unsolicited mail that someone is going to have to go through.

"Also, being a democratic society, there could be inappropriate mail from someone who, say, doesn't support the war, and then you've got a wounded soldier getting it," Goodman said.

Despite the rules, Walter Reed received more than 450,000 Christmas cards last year addressed in general to any wounded soldier at the center. Those cards were either returned to the sender or trashed because military officials said they do not have the personnel to properly screen the cards.

Sending Christmas cards to the troops is a nice way people can honor members of the military. Such cards should be encouraged, and the Bush administration, which has made a habit of criticizing war opponents as unpatriotic, should find ways to get the cards screened and delivered.

Fena D'Ottavio of Chicago, who had been rallying people to write cards until she learned of the ban, raised the paramount question about the ban: "Are we going to forget our soldiers because we are running in fear?"

Fear certainly seems to be winning in this case, and that can't be allowed to happen.