measi's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- End of an accepting era After a lot of thought today, I decided that I'd start sending out a memo to all of my penpals about a "change in policy," so to speak. I HATE putting regulations on penpalling, particularly my own, but for my own sake (not just safety wise, but also out of respect to both of my parents who are bugging the shit out of me with this), I am informing my penpals of an important decision. Here's the note as I wrote and printed it out:
An important note to all of my penpals: Due to the recent threats and cases of anthrax in the USA, I will no longer be accepting any mail that does not have a return address on the outside of the envelope. I receive several pieces of mail per week, both for work and for penpalling, and can no longer take the risk of "unknown" senders. Anything without a return address on the outside of the envelope, including its contents, will be thrown in the trash. Also, I do not return stamps that hve been glued in order to remove the postmark and reuse them. It is a felony in the USA to send or accept mail that has been sent this way, and I refuse to risk a federal criminal record over a postage stamp. Please do not send them my way, or make rude comments if I refuse to send back a stamp that has been glued. I realize I may lose a few penfriends due to these requests, but I have to consider my safety above all, and those who are my friends will (I hope) respect my feelings on the matter. Thanks for your understanding. Melissa Granted, I hate sending notes like this. And unfortunately, it's directed towards my international pals most of all, because they never seem to want to put a return address on an envelope (I haven't the foggiest clue why), and always send glued stamps on envelopes. And besides the illegality of the glued stamps, it's always been a huge pet peeve of mine because if a person can't afford the hobby, cut back. Perhaps I am over-reacting. In fact, I am sure I'm over-reacting. But these are requests I've made time and time again of my penpals, and there are some that just seem to ignore it. I have more than enough people that I write to. I love writing to all of them, but enough's enough... and if an anthrax scare is what it takes to make penpallers a bit more considerate of one another in this regard, so be it. But I'd be lying if I said that the lack of pure friendship doesn't frustrate me. Unfortunately, I've been the victim of mail attacks before (sickos sending me personal photographs... ones that were absolutely disgusting, I might add), so I can't completely discount the possibility. *sigh* The bottom line is that I need to take some precautions, and I don't think asking penpals to put their return address on an envelope is asking too much.... --Mel. 4:21 p.m. - 17 October 2001 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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