At the end of March, the United States Postal Service reported a $4.2 billion loss in revenue. That’s double the amount lost during the same time last year, and adding to that stress on the age-old institution, the White House is threatening to block coronavirus aid for the USPS if it doesn’t up its prices. The post office isn’t always the funnest place to go (though better than the DMV, amirite?), but is it a need?
MARIANNE PORTER, Truckee
Writer
I love the idea of a U.S. Postal Service and yes, it’s part of our democracy. It feels official. Honest. Not bought out by influential interests. It’s Americana. It’s the person in the uniform walking up to my door with a three-wheeled mail cart in my younger days waiting for that letter, and slipping mail through the slot. USPS all the way.
MONICA CALDARI, Donner Lake
Teacher, Creekside Charter School
How strange that the USPS will run out of funding just at the moment that there is controversy over mail-in ballots. I’m terrified at the thought of our votes being suppressed this way. Privatizing doesn’t solve any problems, it just creates more inequality and issues of accessibility. This is a sign of desperate times to come in America if the USPS shuts down.
JAY TIERNEY, Tahoe Donner
Director, business development, Underdog Media
Uh, yeah, we need the post office. What kind of Third-World shithole is this country aspiring towards?
ELI MEYER, Kings Beach
Employee, MWA Inc.
I can’t stand our local post office. It is really challenging living in a place where our billing/mailing address can’t match our shipping address.
JOHN LAUER, Truckee
Bike mechanic, Tahoe Sports Hub
VOTES. We need the post office for mail-in ballots. We need the post office for people who don’t have access to internet. We need the post office for the jobs it provides. It’s ridiculous that this is on the chopping block over so much BS spending.
