Here’s how I feel about the value of our nation’s postal service: “The humble Post Office is a community fixture, a civic inheritance, a rural lifeline, and one of the last vestiges of a shared civic culture in America. Tolerate it, treasure it, and don’t let the vicissitudes of global capitalism, contempt for government, or a viral outbreak take it away.”
Those are my sentiments, but not my words.
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They’re from The American Conservative magazine, calling on people of all political persuasions to save this vital public institution.
The men and women of the postal service have been steadfast in their duties – especially in times of national emergencies – literally delivering for the American people. In today’s terrible pandemic these workers have kept communication and commerce flowing. No matter who you are, how rich or poor, living in teeming inner cities or isolated rural reaches, postal employees are on the job so you and I can get our mail, medicines, food, household necessities, election ballots, and other basics brought right to our doors. A stamp is cheap, yet the wear, tear, and cost for the postal workforce can be high – for example, about 1,200 of them have been infected by COVID-19, and at least 44 have died.
Yet, the entire public system is now under direct attack by a man-made pestilence called Trumpista-vitriolitus, that’s emanating from the White House. By controlling a $10 billion line of credit that the post office must have to get through the current coronavirus depression, Trump is demanding cuts in the wages, benefits, and rights of our stalwart postal workers, plus authority over hiring top postal officials and the right to raise postal rates.
To help stop Trump’s power play to become America’s postal potentate and privatizer-in-chief, get information and campaign resources from the American Postal Workers Union: USMailNotForSale.org.
“Sanders knocks aid for cruise line while Postal Service flounders,” The Hill, April 27, 2020.
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