Saving the Postal Service – national Treasure to Protect Freedom of Speech and Voting -Thank a Mailperson

As a kid back in the 50’s, living in rural Montana, the arrival of the daily mail was always an adventure. We would run out to the mailbox on Sourdough Road and thumb through the letters hoping for that next birthday card from Aunt Pat with a 2$ bill in it since she worked for the railway, or the small packet of new stamps from the Littleton Stamp company, or the next chess move from our chess-mail opponent. After summer church camp it was always in hopes of having that one sweet note from the girl who held your hand at campfire.

Now, 70 years later, in rural Oregon, I am still expectant of the daily mail. It’s a common ritual for my Welsh Terrier to run up and wait for the leash each afternoon during the warmer months so we can hike up the quarter mile to the Dee Highway and collect the latest magazine, or the Hood River News (now delivered by mail), or the Christmas and birthday cards hidden amid the piles of junk mail and requests for donations from a plethora or charities and non-profits. At least twice a year I collect my voting ballot from the box so that I can complete my civic right to vote for local, state and national representatives and ballot measures because Oregon is a vote by mail state.

The mail is a method of mass communication in our nation, whether it is from politicians, corporations or friends. It has a real purpose and function in unifying a nation through a safe system of information dissemination while we receive more and more misinformation through the electronic world disseminated electronically by our political leaders, multinational corporations, and scammers of all kinds who face no penalties for lying, cheating and stealing in the manner set up by our nation to guard the sanctity and safety of postal transactions.

When I receive a registered or receipted piece of mail through the post office, I know automatically that I have legal protections which have protected Americans for over a century. I don’t have to read and e-sign ten pages of disclaimer and give up my right to sue and got to arbitration to solve a problem, No, I know that if I do have a problem, I can report it to the Postal Service and they will follow up on it with the full power of the federal government including the FBI behind them.

So why is it, fellow Americans that our postal service is in danger of: being shut down? going bankrupt? ceasing essential services? Being taxed with burdensome retirement penalties that do not apply to the rest of the federal government? Why in a time of social distancing, massive losses of jobs, rampant unemployment, prohibition on large group gatherings, fear of going to the crowded ballot box lines and halls do we not utilize the postal service for some things that if funded properly, they already have the infra-structure and personnel to handle more smoothly than any of our other governmental agency?

We are in danger of losing one of our most important governmental institutions at a time when it can rise to the aid of the country and smooth over some real crisis areas.

For instance:

Voting by mail is one of the most secure methods of getting to and from the ballot box in troubled times! The Federal Government’s penalties for tampering with the U.S. mail are already in place. Check it out on Google for tampering and vandalism – up to $250,000.00 fines – per incident! https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=penalty+for+tampering+with+us+mail No wonder people don’t mess with the U.S. Mail!

Getting out Unemployment Checks and Stimulus Checks to individuals and local business recipients quickly and efficiently! Who else but our Postal Service should be handling and sending out these vitally important payments ? Where else is the best place to print these checks off and get them directly into the hands of the people who are so in need of these funds? Where could any Citizen with proper identification go to fill out governmental forms and apply for passports in small towns, pick up social security and pension checks? Who already has the trained personnel to deal with the public in a friendly, professional manner and not put you on hold for 20 minutes with a robot? The Postal Service!

Getting out non-fraudulent information to the public. We need a system in our country for distributing our news in a form that will have rules and severe penalties for lying, fraud and mis-information from all levels of the government. Who better than the U.S. Postal Service.

Next time you walk into a Post Office – Thank a Postal Worker for what they do. Tell them how glad you are that they get things done efficiently and professionally.

Next time you write Congress or the Senate, tell them to support this essential part of our Federal Government and to take away the penalties that are forcing it to go out of business. Tell them to give some more duties to the Postal Service because they are one of the truly honest and efficient pieces of our Government and are essential to the unity of the nation.