Missing Mail

There was a time in my earlier years when I was a mail junkie.  College applications and responses of the Admissions Committees, repeated four years later for medical school.  Weekly letter from my girlfriend.  That waned considerably, though some mail achieved predictability, largely monthly bills or subscriptions that would come at a fairly predictable time though never had urgency.  There were New Years cards with inserts from friends.

More recently mail has been devalued.  Email has been a faster, more reliable source of personal and professional correspondence.  Many of my bills have gone to autopay along with computer notification of payment and financial statements.  Daily mail has devolved into solicitations from Rebbes that go into the recycling box unopened, solicitations from organizations that I should support, magazines are still better in print for initial reading, online for storage and retrieval.  My prescriptions have been better maintained by my picking them up at the local pharmacy.  Some things like credit cards, membership cards, or other tangibles still need to come by mail. So do those bills not on autopay.  

As mail of significance becomes less, there until recently has been some predictability.  My New England Journal of Medicine has a weekly Thursday publication date but arrived Monday or Tuesday for many decades with a few lapses, corrected by a survey from their subscription division.  On Thursday, I receive the weekly grocery store ads. With this, some senders note the day of mailing.  

While you cannot really assess the operations of an agency from your own experience which never overrides aggregate data, as a consumer of what the USPS provides, I have reason to question whether service to citizens remains their reason for existence or is subject to manipulation.  My credit card company sent me a new card and told me so electronically.  A few days later they indicated that I should have received it and need to activate it.  I hadn't received it in a time frame that would be expected.  About three days after that I did.  My shopping ads came on Friday instead of Thursday.  My New England Journal has now been arriving after publication date.  And my electoral ballot has not been received at all, even though the web site of the Board of Elections indicates mailing it more than a week before.  

Inept or nefarious?  There are certain things we expect from our government and support financially.  Citizens get to vote and if the USPS is the forum for maintaining that the people who direct it require some accountability.  One need not be a citizen or even be here legally.  We may have deputized ICE agents to round up undocumented immigrants, but those same immigrants still use the postal service, travel on public roads, visit public parks, and have their safety assured nationally by our military and locally by law enforcement.  Some things are just absolute, part of the sanctity of what the American government provides, and should provide flawlessly to everyone.  Tampering with this for any reason, particularly for a political purpose that undermines the will of the public and the security of the public seems about as compelling a reason to vote these rascals out.  If my ballot never comes, I will show up in person to keep myself part of the voting community.  Make a statement for sure.  Make a difference if enough people share my irritation and tenacity.