The daily mail delivery is a highlight of my day. Mail is like a treasure to me. There is no such thing as "Junk Mail."The news reports that the US Postal Service is about to go bankrupt. Postal services are going to be cut back dramatically. Small rural post offices are closing, neighborhood post offices are going if not gone, and Saturday mail is about to be history.
This is unbelievable. How can a country not have a viable postal service? The problem, apparently, is electronic communications. Instant messaging, texting, Face Book, and Twitter are replacing the mail. In all of these services communication is wonderful but mostly meaningless.
On my Face Book page I get items like, "I am eating donuts," or, "At the beauty parlor." Or, other such interesting stuff.
Packed away in some storage area of my house are the letters my wife and I exchanged when I served in Viet Nam. We have letters saved by family members dating back to the 19th century. In my dresser are vintage birthday and Fathers' Day cards I will cherish for the rest of my cognitive life.
Email can sometimes be interesting. Every now and then I get a nice long one from a person telling me a personal story or asking me about something maybe I know about. But, no one saves emails; except me. When my son served in Afghanistan I downloaded every email he sent me and saved it in a ring binder. I want him and his son to have a record of that year; I hope he and his wife did the same (but, I doubt it).
Now, here is my solution to the US Postal Service crises:
1. Write a letter to someone every month or more often. If you do not like to write letters, send a post card or a greeting card. The point is, use a stamp.
2. Tell your friends you do not want birthday greetings or holiday greetings via email or Face Book. They take only seconds to compose and are soon forgotten.
3. Send packages by the Postal Service. I have found the US Postal Service to be as good as UPS or FedEx or better.
4. Visit the post office and say hello, let the postal workers know you care. I cannot find a FedEx office in my town and the UPS is like visiting the prison. At the post office I get a cheerful greeting and prompt service. Some of the clerks I even know by name and they know me. Not so at UPS or FedEx.
5. Greet your letter carrier often and let him or her know that what he or she does is important to you.
6. Start a stamp collection and buy U.S commemorative stamps. They are often beautiful and sometimes very interesting. Stamp collecting can open your eyes to the world.
So, my battle cry is, "Save the US Postal Service!" Only we can do it.
