I recently read an article that said the United States Post Office was losing so much money that they will need to close 700 post offices. I was under the impression the post office was a secure government job. Everyone uses the mail, right?
Well, with the Internet, it is no surprise the post office is becoming more and more obsolete. We all love the ease and convenience of paying our bills on line. We can send email and e-cards to love ones. We can even send pictures and web cam movies of family events via email. With places like face book and my space, we can connect with one another at lightening speed. We can now send a hug or write on one another’s wall. We can even send pictures and notes about our family vacations over the computer. We no longer need the postman to deliver our letters because we can just send them over the ‘net.
However, I kind of miss getting letters in the mail. My daughter and I started writing letters to each other because we both miss running to the mailbox and finding a letter. I also miss looking at a letter written in someone else’s handwriting. Hand written letters are so personal and I feel like they mean a bit more then an email.
So, I am on a mission. I want to save the post office one post card at a time. I have already asked my friends on face book to send me their home addresses if they would like to get post cards from me. I love to travel (even if it is just across the bridge to Philadelphia) and now I can start looking for post cards to mail to others. I would love it if I got post cards from people, so I am making the assumption others feel the same way. Also, how cool would it be if you had a collection of post cards from someone?
So, this year starting today August 8, 2009, I vow to send whoever gives me their address a post card from where ever I travel.
I ask you to do the same. Ask your friends for their addresses and then where ever you go, just drop them a post card. If we all do this small thing, we might be able to show the post office that we still do need it. We can’t let the post office die. There is something so wonderfully personal about getting a handwritten note in the mail. Also, if we don’t do this now, we will see the post office close and then we will truly see how much we need it.
August 9, 2009 at 11:25 am
You have a grown daughter?
Unfortunately, this is not going to put a dent in the budgetary issues the USPS has been experiencing since the early 90s. The USPS is technically not a government entity; money is allocated to them, but officially they’re not affiliated with the U.S. government. They’re sort of “de-regulated” and have been in trouble now for almost 20 years. The USPS has had substantial difficulty in maintaining and reporting full and accurate accounting information, as documented in several recent reports by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO). For instance, in recent years, its financial estimates have fluctuated wildly. The USPS initially estimated its fiscal year (FY) 2001 budget deficit at $480 million, and this figure was approved by the USPS board in November 2000; then, just three months later, it grew to an estimated $2 billion-$3 billion. The next year, the Postal Service’s estimated deficit of $1.35 billion grew to $4.5 billion only six months later. Their business model is extremely outdated and they don’t allow transparency, so we don’t really know what’s going on there w/their accounting.
I also move that you think about all the wasted paper in pushing for your campaign. Everyone sending letters will not save the USPS, so let’s not use paper in vain.
August 9, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I know that realistically I would not be able to save the USPS by myself.
What’s that sound…I hear rain…oh no…that is just you pissing on my parade:).
All kidding aside, I do appreciate your information. It is a known fact that I hardly researched this topic and my only goal was to push my own agenda. So thank you for doing the work for me and bringing another point to light.
Now, that wasting paper comment….We need to talk about that one.
I don’t think I could ever think of a personal letter or postcard as a waste of paper. In these times when it is so much easier to just send an email, I put more value on the person willing to sit down and hand write a letter. Also, how many books are published that show personal letters of Hemmingway or Fitzgerald? Letters are first hand accounts of events and thoughts and I just don’t think an email could take the place of a handwritten letter.
I don’t think sending a postcard to someone is a waste of paper. I think it does more for the economy then sending an email. First, you get to drive or take a plane to the destination. Secondly, you go to the gift shop and buy the cards to send. Then you get to send a small quick note (that will be read by everyone who sees the postcard…it’s just human nature really) and put a stamp on it. In just sending a postcard you have helped (in a small way) three different types of businesses.
Sending letters is a personal connection I think we are all missing out on. With email and text messaging, we hardly hear each other’s voice. I think there are worse ways to “waste paper”.
My daughter is 20 and my son is going to be 21 at the end of this year. Sure, I didn’t give birth to them, but they are absolutely my kids. My daughter became mine because someone said I looked like I could be her mom and then BAM! I was her other mother. I think my son did some kind of jedi mind trick on me because one day he was there and then the next day I was buying him lunchables. I love them both and I am so honored that each of them have placed me in their life and they think of me as their other mother. There is no higher honor then being someone’s mother and I just hope that I can always live up to that honor.
Thank you so much for your information and your support. I’ll take you off the postcard list:).
August 9, 2009 at 11:52 am
Despite the fact that this campaign may not actually save the USPS and that it can be considered “us[ing] paper in vain,” I think it’s a good idea. Let’s face it, the postcard is a lost art form. (Now, I’m not necessarily talking of the postcards with pictures of girls with thongs.) Heck, I’d appreciate mail every now and then that wasn’t a bill or an advertisement.
August 9, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Tina:
Thank you. I agree that the post card is a lost art form because we are all so impressed (I guess, I couldn’t think of the right word for it) with the idea that we can just email someone and that’s it. So, I guess I won’t be sending you that postcard with the chicks in thongs on it:).
I agree that I would also appreciate something other then bills or coupons for Chuck E Cheese or Bed, Bath and Beyond.
August 9, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Now I promise not soapbox in this comment, the first comment was constructive criticism with only a small sprinkle of rude, or maybe it was snobbery? Anyway, it doesn’t matter.
What matters is doing something you like and that brings a smile to your face. If a letter in the mail does that for you than by golly do it! Now if you want to talk about waste of paper, lets talk about bank notices or bills or those annoying coupon collections that say ‘To Our Neighbor’. That stuff is definitely a waste of paper.
However, a letter? From your mom? From your sister? You can’t take the value of that away. While some people may not put their values in such things (maybe a text message is really important to them, who knows, I’m not judging), if you do then go for it. And if you don’t want to keep the letter, than recycle it! (However, I keep all my letters and postcards, so I can read them again).
So I think if your worried about wasting paper on a letter, than you don’t have to send one. However I am. I’m sick of just getting notices from my loans reminding me one day hey! You are not going to be able to pay, we just want to remind you. With all the hum drum lately, I feel a post card would really help me out, make me take a moment (and not be googling, or be texting) and just be happy. Live in the moment. Remind yourself that there are lives beyond a computer a screen.
August 9, 2009 at 3:30 pm
There are lives behind computer screens and cell phones. We do tend to get caught up with how easy it is just to send a text or an email. I can’t remember the last time I have heard my sister’s voice over the phone because it is so easy just to text her.
An email can get corrupted. Text messages get erased. A postcard…a letter…they have more staying power.
Thank you for your comment and your support. Now go mail a letter:)
August 9, 2009 at 4:04 pm
How can a letter or postcard a waste of paper? Obviously, the tree has already been cut down….the paper is there…It would be more of a waste to let the paper sit there without being used. By using the postcard, you are actually using the paper for what it was intended….the waste would be not to use it and let it go to waste.
August 9, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Very true and good point:)
August 9, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Ok, I certainly didn’t mean to be rude with my original comment. I mentioned we all need to THINK about the waste of paper (and really all kinds of natural resources) in this country, and by that I assumed we need to go back to the beginning, to the cutting down of trees. Yes, already manufactured paper needs to be used, and then hopefully recycled once, maybe even twice, before fiber breaks down. And I just said to THINK about it. Yes, I agree, useless crap/marketing in the mail is the culprit. I have been signed up for years not to receive junk mail; and I pay for that service…and it still doesn’t catch 100% of it.
In writing my answer, I wasn’t attacking the form of writing letters by hand, or postcards. I was presenting a point for discussion, then I outlined in general terms the ungodly amount of waste ($ BILLIONS!!) that goes on within the USPS. I should have mentioned that I worked for a few years as a communications contractor for the USPS at the Postal Management Academy in Potomac, MD. and the amount of waste I saw on lavish dinners and lunches and meetings for top brass (at the time General Postmaster Marvin Runyon and his cronies) was astounding. The problem with the USPS has always been lack of financial transparency and lack of gov’t oversight. They are a typical corporation with horrendous spending habits; and like a typical corporation, don’t care about the consumer (us). That was my point. It had nothing to do with eradicating the art of letters. As a writer, believe me, I appreciate immensely the discipline of calligraphy and the personal touch of a letter.
August 9, 2009 at 6:09 pm
Well, now in that context it makes sense. I was wondering why you were calling a letter a waste.
I guess I want to “save the USPS” because I want to get back to the personal touch of letters and postcards.
August 12, 2009 at 1:25 pm
something interesting to go along w/this: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2009/08/is_this_why_the_postal_service.html
August 12, 2009 at 2:51 pm
This article brings up a good point. Should the Postal service devote so much money on these commemorative stamps? Should they appeal to young audiences?
I don’t know how I would feel if I saw a stamp with some hip hop artist on it. I think I would feel like the Postal service is jumping the shark.
I myself have the whole Civil War stamp collection…but I am a dork so I guess I can’t be used as a barometer.
Thank you for bringing the article here and I hope others will read it and respond.
August 25, 2009 at 11:01 pm
[...] a blog I wrote called, “Saving the Post Office One Post card at a Time” http://mwittle.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/saving-the-post-office-one-post-card-at-a-time/, I discussed the importance of the post office and also the importance of getting personal mail. [...]