Unheralded

PAULA MEHMEL: Shoot The Rapids — Deliver Us From Evil

This whole situation with the U.S. Postal Service baffles me.

We have a U.S. Postal Service for the same reason we have a National Defense, an Interstate Highway System or the TSA. It is part of the mechanics of running a country. There is a charge for the services we receive when we mail packages or post a letter, but it wasn’t created to make money or run a profit. It was created to provide a means of transport for communications and delivery of packages for residents of the United States.

But now, the Postal Service has come under attack in unprecedented ways as the administration openly admitted that its agenda is to create chaos for the election.

Today on Fox News, President Trump said the quiet part out loud and admitted his scheme.

“They (the Democrats) want $25 billion for the post office. Now, they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots. Now, in the meantime, they aren’t getting there. But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.”

In the face of a bold-faced agenda to bring down the post office, which also includes the removal of machines used for sorting letters, what really seems unfathomable is the silence from GOP members of Congress from rural areas, whose constituents will feel the pain of a dismantled and slowed system of postal delivery.

Do they honestly think that this will go unnoticed or even be applauded as a wise decision? At least in more urban areas there are alternatives for delivery, but rural areas need the post office, as does the government itself, for delivery of official documents like jury summons, Social Security checks and taxes bills. It is also a vital tool for the health of disabled veterans who receive their medication in the mail.

The utter silence of Kevin Cramer, John Hoeven and Kelly Armstrong echoes loudly as they bow to a fealty of their supreme ruler rather than then needs ot their constituents. I suspect when rent checks arrive late, vital medicine is delayed and even birthday cards don’t arrive on time, the people they supposedly serve will not remain quiet.

Why can’t members of both parties advocate for a Postal Service that fulfills its mission? What has happened that seeking to destroy the USPS is looked at with a blind eye rather than promoting the common good?

The people who will get hurt aren’t Democrats or Republicans. They are all Americans.





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