Saving the Post Office

Handcuffed by Congress, Postal Service faces a murky future

By Nathaniel Smith, Columnist, The Times

I’ve always been a fan of the post office. I enjoy getting the mail out of the letterbox attached to my house six days a week; I like knowing that a mail carrier is walking around my neighborhood and going to people’s doors without asking for subscriptions or conversions. I enjoy taking an occasional package over to the corner of Gay and Walnut streets and sending it off to somewhere near or far. The country and world make sense to me in part because our post offices and the postal services around the globe work together to ensure that a letter or package from Pennsylvania goes wherever its sender wishes.

Now, it seems, the US Post Office can’t afford any more to own and operate the handsome building in downtown West Chester, which has served as post office since it was built in 1907. Maybe it will become home to a new and exciting community resource.

But what if the possible purchaser, the West Chester Food Co-op, or any other future owner doesn’t need all that space? No problem; it could rent out part of the building, maybe even to the post office itself. But you may ask, why doesn’t the post office show some initiative and rent out extra space itself, or add ancillary services that people need in a downtown, like photocopying machines or postal savings accounts?

Because Congress won’t let them; and that’s the real story. The US Congress, which is supposed to act in the public interest, is trying to strangle the US Post Office.

This is why the effort called A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service is so important and timely. We read at agrandalliance.org that:

“The United States Postal Service is a wonderful national treasure, enshrined in the Constitution and supported by the American people. Without any taxpayer funding, the USPS serves 150 million households and businesses each day, providing affordable, universal mail service to all – including rich and poor, rural and urban, without regard to age, nationality, race or gender….”

Of course I had to check the “enshrined in the Constitution” part. Sure enough, per Article I, Section 8: “The Congress shall have Power to…” do a lot of things including “To establish Post Offices.”

And those have a venerable history. Do you recall who was the first US Postmaster General? It was none other than Pennsylvania’s own Benjamin Franklin, for about 16 months in 1775-76.

Continuing at agrandalliance.org:

“The U.S. Postal Service belongs to “We, the People.” But the USPS and postal jobs are threatened by narrow monied interests aimed at undermining postal services and dismantling this great public institution….”

Well, that fits the pattern, doesn’t it, imposed by the factions that want “less government”? And the postal service doesn’t even receive taxpayer subsidies. Reading on:

“…a Congressionally-manufactured USPS “crisis” imposed an unfair crushing financial mandate on the Postal Service that no other government agency or private company is forced to bear. (The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 compels the USPS to pay approximately $5.5 billion per year to fund future retiree healthcare costs 75 years in advance.) Without this unreasonable burden, the USPS would have enjoyed an operating surplus of $600 million in 2013 and over $1.4 Billion in 2014….”

Imagine private companies being obliged now to amass funds to pay for the healthcare of future employees who have not even been born yet! If that is going to happen, it should start with UPS, FedEx, and other companies that are cutting into postal service business without having the 75-year burden imposed on them.

The postal service, like Amtrak and other public services, has long provided good employment options for those who need them. I recall that after the writer Richard Wright (whose autobiography, Black Boy, is a fascinating read) left the South in the late 1920’s, he landed a job in the Chicago post office, which was his ticket to a more stable life (till the job ended during the Depression) and eventually to New York City and writing fame.

In a brief video at agrandalliance.org, Danny Glover recounts his family’s and his own background working with the Postal Service, which he describes as a community anchor, a highly diverse unionized employer, and a national treasure. Great qualities—and what could be a bigger red flag, in the current political climate?

Still, now that we know what’s going on, we can find ways (use the Internet) to support the USPS and its workers and (research and vote) and encourage the retirement of members of Congress who stand against working people, community, diversity, and the public interest.