It is hard to watch someone or something that you love die. The U.S. Postal Service has been a lifelong friend. The thrill of getting one’s first card. The joys of exchanging letters and cards with friends and loved ones across the country at low cost. (I remember when first class postage was 3 or 4 cents.) The safety and reliability of paying bills and receiving financial correspondence with minimum fuss.
But now the patient is on life support, with the head of the agency raising the first class rates every six months since he took the job and lowering the rates of service drastically. Meanwhile, he complains that rates of first class usage are declining. (Well, duh, even I have weeded out some infrequent correspondents to save money.) He trumpets the need for “efficiency,” rushing to deliver packages, but slowing the expected delivery time on first class, and now he wants to “efficiently” take Springfield mail that needs to be delivered in Springfield to St. Louis to sort.
It was one thing when delivery rates slowed during the pandemic, but that is not the excuse now. The Wabash post office periodically closes at 3 p.m. or just after noon without warning due to low staffing, during the Christmas season even. We can never tell what time we will receive our mail, occasionally in the afternoon, but more often around 7 or 7:30 p.m. This has been an increasing problem for at least a year. Some days during the Christmas season we got no mail, which was inexplicable because we send and receive many cards.
Furthermore, since the beginning of January 2025 the situation has worsened. We have had three holidays (including Carter’s funeral) and one day after a snowstorm (so much for the laughably idealistic post office motto about nothing hindering these faithful couriers on their appointed rounds). In all but one case, the holiday has been followed by another day of no mail. In January, following the Martin Luther King holiday, we got a package on Tuesday, but no other mail, no mail on Wednesday, and no mail on Thursday. We knew something was wrong because dozens of organizations send us financial solicitations and sell our address to dozens more, and to get none of them piling up from Sunday-Thursday is unimaginable.
So, on Friday we went to the post office to inquire. The clerk was kind, but obviously exhausted. She hedged that our regular carrier was not working this week, and it was not clear to us whether he was sick, on vacation, terminated, or what. But it was clear that the post office is understaffed (if the absence of a carrier would result in no mail delivery at all for nearly a week), overworked, and the problems are coming down from above (some of which are detailed in Scott Reeder’s article in the Jan. 16-22, 2025 IT issue).
The clerk also gave us a form to use to have our mail held, which she said many people are doing. It is not clear to me why I would want to do this, as the post office is already holding my mail, and I want to get it delivered.
These are only the latest symptoms of what appears to be a long-term fatal illness. This illness appears to be worsened by “medical malpractice” due to the goals of persons like Louis DeJoy, Elon Musk, Donald Trump and their ilk, who appear to want to make conditions so bad and cause such distrust that everyone will desire to have the postal service privatized. And that will help?? When has “privatization” ever helped anyone but the persons and companies taking over?
When the postal clerk handed us our pile of mail accumulated Sunday-Friday, we had: 16 fundraising solicitations (four of them with sets of return address labels); eight receipts/financial statements (some necessary for tax purposes); one bill; one alumni magazine; and one letter=27 items. Plus she accidentally included five items that belonged in our neighbors’ box (that we delivered).
There are still many people who use the national postal service all the time and to whom, for various reasons, it is a lifeline. Many people either cannot or do not wish to do all their business online. And they prefer to have and send physical paper cards and letters. Some just love mail. (I raise my hand to all of these.)
It is time for everyone who values the U.S. Postal Service to call out the attempts to murder it and urge resuscitation of the patient.
This article appears in Combating human trafficking.
