Well, one thing’s for sure, the quote above is obviously not the motto of the USPS today.

First of all, this column is not about the fantastic postal workers that we are blessed to have in Windham as they do their jobs day in and day out. What we are hearing from the deadheads of the Dead Letter Office in Washington is that slower delivery of mail on fewer days of the week is likely coming soon.

Now haven’t we heard something like that from our very own local town and school officials when someone proposes to cut taxes? Those in charge at the postal service are proposing closing half of the regional sorting centers across the United States, which because of distances mail must travel will pretty much end next-day delivery of first-class mail.

With an increased volume of mail at sorting centers will come even more mail sent to the wrong post office, which is already happening but never talked about. On top of that there’s talk of closing post offices on Saturdays as well as the increase in the cost of stamps to 45 cents, along with other postal increases as well.

I am trying to figure out how the post offices can make more money by cutting services to its patrons. When one looks at how private enterprises compete with each other, the one with better services and costs win, I wonder who in the USPS thinks that by cutting days of service, slowing delivery and increasing the cost of postage will be the salvation to their survival in today’s electronic age. That alone tells me the lights are on in Washington but nobody’s home.

I pay for a post office box at a local post office while others receive their mail at home for nothing. The USPS uses hundreds of millions of gallons of gasoline to deliver mail to those houses, for nothing! That’s a huge problem because the number of customers that they serve has increased while the volume of mail has seriously decreased because of the Internet.

Although I usually have no need for speedy mail service, I do know that businesses across this planet do. When I want something or some kind of service on a speedy basis, I am only going to go to a company that can deliver what I want when I want and I am sure that every business across our nation would agree. Just imagine, the United States Postal Service is promising just the opposite. Duh?

I also seriously doubt that the postal service could be privatized without government financial assistance (that’s you and I). With the exception of packages, in order to make a profit with letter mail – and the so-called junk mail such as catalogs – postal rates would have to have a serious increase in cost. With so much available on the Internet for free or reduced costs, the Postal Service needs an infusion of intelligence to gear itself for the future, instead of the pasture just like the famous Pony Express.

For being so famous, the Pony Express only lasted 19 months and never made a profit. Can you believe that something new put it out of business? It was something old tech called the telegraph, which became America’s first Internet in the 1800s.

I have to guess that the cutbacks have already begun at local post offices around our nation. Anyone looked at the floor in the lobby of the South Windham Post Office? I know when I was growing up cleanliness was next to godliness. Oh, that’s right. Our government doesn’t want us to believe in God. Please don’t drop your mail or kids on the floor there.

Lane Hiltunen, of Windham, loves his local post office but wonders how soon it will be out of business or even worse, condemned.