Save the USPS, Save America

(Or at least part of it!)

It’s not just the elderly that get their meds delivered by the mail. It’s also the disabled. And in the pandemic, it might be everyone. If there was a time to not gut the USPS, it would be in a pandemic. Especially now, the USPS is a lifeline for many. It’s how we order meds, medical equipment, vitamins, exercise equipment, and really almost everything else!

It’s how we get our insurance reimbursements for out-of-pocket and out-of-network costs. It’s how I send elderly and not-so-elderly relatives greeting cards to tell them I’ve remembered their birthday and I’m thinking of them even if I can’t be there with them and I have no idea when I’ll see them again.

It’s how many of us vote.

Again, it’s how many of us vote.

It’s how I’ve voted absentee and with a mail-in ballot for various reasons: I was in college, I had trouble standing in line, and voting by mail was best for me.

It’s baked goods for the same reason. It’s care packages of tea and chocolate and love. It’s birthday and anniversary and graduation presents. It’s a dog calendar because it’ll make us all smile. We rate dogs is one of the ways I’m getting by in the pandemic and sending copies of their 2021 calendar to me and my loved ones filled me with joy.

We need the USPS to mail our voter registration cards and ballots and taxes. The USPS has been connecting us in so many ways across this giant nation since people were using the Pony Express to send letters to love ones from the East Coast to the West Coast or sent letters via ships that had to go from NYC all the way south to Antarctica and Tierra del Fuego before turning north and landing on the West Coast.

Sure, sometimes the mail is bills and junk mail. I will be followed from address to address by Geico and Bed, Bath, & Beyond coupons for the rest of my born days. Sometimes I even get mail addressed to dead relatives. It happens. It’s not perfect, of course, but it’s necessary and important.

I was legit excited when I moved into my first building that had a mail slot. That screamed class and convenience to me (when it probably just meant I was in a huge building). I loved knowing I could send birthday cards and bill payments (that couldn’t be done online) just by going downstairs.

I still factor in USPS locations when I plan my appointments and errands. A location near USPS is like gold because who doesn’t have returns or need to send a care package?

The USPS is where I got my first passport when I was eighteen and hadn’t been anywhere in the world yet. It’s where my mom sends out her packages for her small business. It’s where she meant care packages when I moved north for college and she wanted to makes sure I had enough socks (spoiler alert: one can have too many socks even in the North!) The USPS is how I got books after I had scoliosis surgery.

I can still remember many of the USPS locations I’ve been to across America, from Portland, OR to Portland, ME, Atlanta GA to Burlington, VT. These locations are sprinkled across my Google Maps tracks. The USPS is the lifeblood of America and we can’t afford to lose it. Thank you USPS employees!

Photo by Matthew T Rader on Unsplash