Letter Writers Alliance: Keep The Post Office Public

Lately, it seems like nothing but doom-and-gloom reporting when it comes to the U.S.P.S. Just yesterday, the court found that the latest stamp increase of a nickel was illegal. Every other op-ed I read about it has a new speculation, and none of them are good, if you want my own opinion about it. Recently, Amazon announced they wouldn't use FedEx for a portion of their shipping anymore. That touched off a rumor that Amazon is going to launch a bid for privatizing the U.S.P.S.

The U.S.P.S. is already working with Amazon in a deal that might look good on paper, but seems to be running the postal people into the ground. Everywhere one looks, it seems like the "experts" want to solve the problems of lower revenues with cuts in service, both to the public and the postal worker. In addition to pension and insurance changes, 5-day delivery is being floated; so based on what is happening right now, that would probably mean only Amazon delivery on Saturday/Sunday.

If the U.S.P.S. becomes privatized, we will all suffer and not just those of us in America. Almost half of all the mail in the world is processed by the U.S.P.S. It delivers more in sixteen days than UPS and FedEx deliver together during the entire year. I don't have the answers here, but I do think that the congressional mandate that benefits for future employees of the post office be pre-funded is ludicrous and should be eliminated. The U.S.P.S. should also have greater control over themselves. They run without any tax dollar benefits, but are constricted in their operations as if they were funded by the government. It really seems like a rock and hard place situation for them.

As long as they keep taking our letters, we'll keep sending them. We value what the mail and the postal service do for our community, both in life and online. We should keep the U.S.P.S. ours.