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What Jim has learned today

I learned I love … absolutely love … both the institution and every living, breathing soul of the U.S. Postal Service. Its very existence is a clear and tangible expression of the virtue of American thought and deed. Its history is our history. It is the logical consequence of citizenship and unity. It is a piece of that which makes America great. May … I … get an Amen? On a given day, the USPS delivers 507 million letters and packages, or, five thousand, eight hundred and sixty-one pieces per second. On a given day, the USPS pumps $160 million into our economy in wages and benefits. On a given day the USPS processes 54,490 address changes, opens the doors to 31,585 post offices and operates the world’s largest civilian fleet of 227,896 vehicles … all at a cost of zero dollars to taxpayers. Now, it is true that the USPS operates at a significant yearly loss of over $5 billion. But these losses are manufactured by politicians in Congress who bend over backwards, passing laws intended to cause the failure of this cherished institution. The USPS would like to close 4,500 post offices that average 4.4 customer deliveries per day but congress say no. Congress prevents the USPS from consolidating extraneous processing centers. It was a politician, one Rep. Thomas Davis III of Virginia who sponsored the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 that gave the USPS 10 years to pre-fund retiree benefits 75 years into the future … a thing that would crush most every private corporation. Why would an elected official do things to sabotage our cherished postal service? Privatization … that’s all … they feel it is a better thing for this treasure that is ours to be the property of corporations. Germany has done this, a boon to a few investors but all Germany’s citizens now pay 67 percent more than we do for a stamp. Same in Japan … 100 percent more than in the United States. Again, in Great Britain, 60 percent more than we in the U.S. It is a strange sort of logic that wants to destroy this monument to Americanism. A monument that in spite of all the barbs and arrows slung at it, it is yet strong and sturdy enough to deliver 1.4 billion packages for FedEx and UPS. I have learned I am proud of my U.S. Postal Service. Right now, at this very moment, I am giving the entire workforce of the USPS a collective mind-hug. For those politicians who are lying down in front of it instead of getting behind it … well, I’m giving them something else. They should know … neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor brain-dead politicians, stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. This is all I have learned today.

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James Wares is retired and resides in Marshalltown. He can be reached at whatjimhaslearnedtoday@yahoo.com

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