As a Kent Drive resident, here’s my take on recent lapses in mail service. Despite the recent Enterprise headline, residents here are not “quick to judge” any individual postal carrier. Historically, our carrier service has indeed been top-notch. What’s got our recent attention is that, for some, expected mail has simply gone missing. That’s never happened before.

We know there’s great pressure on the U.S. Postal Service as it tries to keep postal work close to a middle-class occupation, like it used to be. I’ll pay higher postage to keep service up. But many chafe at paying more, so USPS increases rates in small, inadequate increments.

We hear it’s still strapped for cash, and will cut Saturday delivery. As a letter writer correctly points out, USPS is also reworking delivery routes, probably in anticipation of more resource cuts. All of this forced by changing use of the mails (when’s the last time you used USPS to send a letter?) and congressional budget war.

The squeeze does hurt mail personnel. We should all support the recent efforts of the postal employees (TV spots, etc.) to educate the public about the sources of the problem.

So we understand. But missing mail is another matter. Complaint has become a bad word, but it is an American democratic tradition. If there are no complaints about no Saturday delivery, or even about missing mail, those in Congress pushing to cut mail service will assume these changes are painless. So letters to the editor are good. Copy to John Garamendi, our congressman. He’s in the book. I mean, on the Web.
Ken Wagstaff

Davis

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