It’s laborious to observe somebody or one thing that you simply love die. The U.S. Postal Service has been a lifelong good friend. The joys of getting one’s first card. The fun of exchanging letters and playing cards with pals and family members throughout the nation at low value. (I keep in mind when firstclass postage was 3 or 4 cents.) The protection and reliability of paying payments and receiving monetary correspondence with minimal fuss.
However now the affected person is on life assist, with the pinnacle of the company elevating the primary class charges each six months since he took the job and reducing the charges of service drastically. In the meantime, he complains that charges of firstclass utilization are declining. (Properly, duh, even I’ve weeded out some rare correspondents to save cash.) He trumpets the necessity for “effectivity,” speeding to ship packages, however slowing the anticipated supply time on firstclass, and now he needs to “effectively” take Springfield mail that must be delivered in Springfield to St. Louis to kind.
It was one factor when supply charges slowed in the course of the pandemic, however that isn’t the excuse now. The Wabash submit workplace periodically closes at 3 p.m. or simply after midday with out warning because of low staffing, in the course of the Christmas season even. We are able to by no means inform what time we’ll obtain our mail, sometimes within the afternoon, however extra typically round 7 or 7:30 p.m. This has been an rising downside for a minimum of a yr. Some days in the course of the Christmas season we obtained no mail, which was inexplicable as a result of we ship and obtain many playing cards.
Moreover, because the starting of January 2025 the state of affairs has worsened. We’ve had three holidays (together with Carter’s funeral) and at some point after a snowstorm (a lot for the laughably idealistic submit workplace motto about nothing hindering these devoted couriers on their appointed rounds). In all however one case, the vacation has been adopted by one other day of no mail. In January, following the Martin Luther King vacation, we obtained a package deal on Tuesday, however no different mail, no mail on Wednesday, and no mail on Thursday. We knew one thing was incorrect as a result of dozens of organizations ship us monetary solicitations and promote our tackle to dozens extra, and to get none of them piling up from Sunday-Thursday is unimaginable.
So, on Friday we went to the submit workplace to inquire. The clerk was sort, however clearly exhausted. She hedged that our common service was not working this week, and it was not clear to us whether or not he was sick, on trip, terminated, or what. But it surely was clear that the submit workplace is understaffed (if the absence of a service would end in no mail supply in any respect for practically every week), overworked, and the issues are coming down from above (a few of that are detailed in Scott Reeder’s article within the Jan. 16-22, 2025 IT challenge).
The clerk additionally gave us a kind to make use of to have our mail held, which she mentioned many individuals are doing. It isn’t clear to me why I might need to do that, because the submit workplace is already holding my mail, and I need to get it delivered.
These are solely the newest signs of what seems to be a long-term deadly sickness. This sickness seems to be worsened by “medical malpractice” because of the targets of individuals like Louis DeJoy, Elon Musk, Donald Trump and their ilk, who seem to need to make circumstances so unhealthy and trigger such mistrust that everybody will want to have the postal service privatized. And that may assist?? When has “privatization” ever helped anybody however the individuals and firms taking up?
When the postal clerk handed us our pile of mail gathered Sunday-Friday, we had: 16 fundraising solicitations (4 of them with units of return tackle labels); eight receipts/monetary statements (some vital for tax functions); one invoice; one alumni journal; and one letter=27 objects. Plus she by accident included 5 objects that belonged in our neighbors’ field (that we delivered).
There are nonetheless many individuals who use the nationwide postal service on a regular basis and to whom, for numerous causes, it’s a lifeline. Many individuals both can’t or don’t want to do all their enterprise on-line. And so they favor to have and ship bodily paper playing cards and letters. Some simply love mail. (I increase my hand to all of those.)
It’s time for everybody who values the U.S. Postal Service to name out the makes an attempt to homicide it and urge resuscitation of the affected person.
