What if we made decisions based on what’s good for the people?

By KAREN PARKER

County Line Publisher Emeritus

Many moons ago, before I made the silly decision to go into the newspaper business, I made other, equally bad decisions. Most notably was the absurd idea that I would make a good beekeeper. 

But what’s a beekeeper without bees? No, you can’t just grab a couple from midair, lock them up in the hive with a bottle of whiskey and some sexy underwear, and assume nature will do the job.

Really, you need a swarm, and, surprise, there are all sorts of fun-loving folks out there ready and willing to help you out. Anyone who knows bees will appreciate that those once gentle, humming critters become vicious killers when penned up in a box and bounced through the postal system.

And should that package of annoyed bees break in the post-office and should that postmaster be Charles Pearson — ah, whoops. To that point, I had always gotten my mail on the route and had not met Mr. Pearson. He, however, did not hesitate to call me into the office to discuss the bee issue.

Of course, by then, it was no longer an issue after he had deployed a fly swatter and a can of bug spray.

Postal employees, I learned, have more than a few challenges to face. I am certain a box of chicks was more welcome than bees, although I wonder how often the carrier was tempted to toss them in the ditch after hours of chirping.

Still, I would be amazed if the current postmaster general could handle the “flight of the bee,” despite his hefty annual paycheck of $291,000. On Monday, Mr. DeJoy was unable to tell Congress the price of a postcard.

The post office is all the news this past week, with the Democrats certain DeJoy’s new policies, which have slowed down the mail, are designed to muck up the mail-in ballots in November, while Republicans for the most part consider it a hoax.

As someone who spent most of her career dependent on the USPS to do its part, well, I never quite fell into that “Americans love their postal service” category the media is now hyping. Earlier this summer, all of the newspapers destined for Ontario’s rural route took a two-week detour. And long before DeJoy’s rule, an entire week’s printing fell off the world. It was later discovered in Kentucky, huddled in what was believed to be an empty cart.

Stuff happens when 650,000 employees are knitted together across 50 states. But the average Joe mail person deserves a lot of respect. Most take their jobs seriously, as illustrated by the dozens who have died of the virus this year.

I roughly calculated that over the years, the USPS handled almost three million newspapers for me and about the same amount in first-class mail, renewal notices, bills, etc.

It is true that service declined when sorting centers were reconfigured some years back. Under the old system, I could expect that Elroy would receive their papers on Thursday, along with all other local subscribers. But now 539 zip codes are sent on a circuitous trip to St. Paul and then Milwaukee and don’t arrive sometimes for a week, even though Ontario is a measly 20 miles from Elroy. Carrier pigeon would be an improvement.

Out-of-state papers have been problematic for many years. Some never arrive, or they arrive weeks late. Most people now have switched to our e-edition, while others dropped it entirely in frustration.

DeJoy was a mega-donor to the Trump campaign, and speculation is that is how he ended up with the job, despite not having a day’s experience with the USPS. That’s too bad. If he knew the system, he might not have done such a miserable job botching it up and found himself on the hot seat in Congress.

The truth may never come out, but we do know that since he assumed the job two months ago and made multiple changes, the mail has slowed down. Postal patrons are not getting their drugs, their checks, or the packages they now depend on in this pandemic.

From my own self-interest, second-class newspapers and magazines also are caught in the slowdown at a time when print media is struggling to stay afloat. In the past 14 years, 1,810 newspapers have ceased publication.

Of course, newspapers’ predicament is caused by many other factors besides the postal service. We need a new business model. Some countries, such as France, provide governmentsupport, although it’s hard to be a government watchdog and bite the hand that feeds you. Our founding fathers thought an informed public was so important that newspapers were delivered free or at greatly reduced rates for most of our history, until 1970. That was obviously before the eminently reliable Facebook and Fox News.

DeJoy may have put forth changes without realizing the blowback. Removing sorting machines and blue postal boxes may reflect only the decline in mail caused by the Internet.

But the volume of mail surges and declines through the year. ThinkChristmas cards and packages. If the USPS can handle that, then it should have the capacity to handle a mailed-in ballot from every citizen in the country without breaking a sweat.

I am willing to cut DeJoy a break, but he starts to look like a weasel when he refuses to show the documents and studies that led to his decisions on postal equipment, overtime and trucking management. Worse yet, he defies Congress and says he will not restore the prior level of service in force before these changes.

Once again, the rural folks who are most dependent on the USPS get the shaft.

Wouldn’t it be nice if decisions of this type were made based on what is good for the people and not politics?

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