One More Reason

          As I examined the badly bent bread pan I thought, “This is one more reason that the postal service is losing money.” According to the Federal Times, eighty percent of local post offices are losing money and the postal service, as a whole, is billions in the red.  While losing all this money the postal service wanted to close over three thousand locations, but has had trouble closing any.  Imagine running a business that is micromanaged by 535 partners and you get some idea of how the United States Postal Service feels when it asks congress for permission to do anything. 

          But, I’m not saying that it is all the fault of congress.  There is plenty of blame to spread around.  One purpose of the postal service is to “bind the nation together.”  I teach in a remote Alaskan Eskimo village.  I’m sure our little post office is losing money, but I’m really glad we have it.  If the Eek, Alaska, office was on the chopping block I would whine and moan.  The service provided to this region would be impossible to replace at the price the United States Postal Service is allowed to charge and forced to pay.  

          There are no roads to Eek, Alaska.  During the summer, goods are hauled in on a barge but during the winter, they are flown in on bush planes.  As you can imagine things cost much more up here.  However, if you can stuff it in a postal service flat rate box you can send it across the glaciers and frozen tundra for the same rate you would pay to send it across town.  Good for me, but I’m not so sure it is good for the post office. 

          Because it is expense to haul mail to Eek it is contracted out to the local bush airlines.  They tell me it is not a low bid contract, but sometimes I wonder.  Like today when I opened the mangled box to find this bread pan.  I’m certain that the little lady in charge of the Eek post office isn’t playing hockey in the back room with my boxes. 

          In the electronic age is it really necessary to bind the nation together with a postal service that charges the same to send a package or letter to Eek as it does to your friend in Seattle or New York?  What if there were no flat-rate boxes to Eek, Alaska?  Yes, I would do more whining and moaning, but why should you pay to ship my bread pan or letter across the Alaskan tundra?     

          We like our mail cheap and delivered to our door daily—except Sunday, but until the post office is run like a business and until we are willing to pay the real freight of our packages and letters, the system will continue to lose money and I’ll continue banging out the dents in my bread pans.