Dear Editor,
In c. 500 B.C., Herodotus wrote, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
The iconic phrase often called the Postal Service’s motto — adapted from Herodotus and famously inscribed on New York City’s main post office — has long symbolized the reliability of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). It pains me to see that proud institution now being reduced and distorted beyond recognition.
The USPS’s Delivering for America plan is a 10-year major restructuring program that targets the postal service in the nation’s rural areas, which management says are unprofitable. But the post office’s mandate since its founding during the American Revolution was to provide mail as a public service, rather than maximize profit.
The Trump administration has debated privatizing the Postal Service and floated structural changes. Proposals and leaked reports have suggested that privatization would involve selling parts of the USPS and potentially weakening its universal service mission, although nothing has yet been enacted.
But far more than privatization is at stake here. The role and responsibility of government in maintaining communication for everyone is the real issue. Not everyone has a computer or a smartphone.
We must protect the service that millions of Americans rely on to send and receive critical items — from financial statements and mail-in ballots to life-saving medicines and personal letters.
I do not believe we will remain one nation should we fail to reverse the political and social inequality that has been growing unchecked under the Trump administration’s aim to eliminate all but profit-making services from government support.
USPS is one of the largest federal civilian employers, with over half a million employees who serve every U.S. address. Americans consistently rank the Postal Service second only to the National Park Service among their most-beloved government agencies.
It is a pillar of American life, and we owe it to ourselves to protect and improve it.
John Steen, South Burlington, Vt.
