USPS = An important service

After witnessing the Sony cyberattacks, we should be grateful for the U.S. Postal Service- Susan Milligan

12.23.14 The Postal Service gets slammed for reasons that are not only unfair but terribly naïve. It is dismissed as financially troubled – a claim that is not really true, since the service is alone in having the absurd requirement to pre-fund its retiree health benefits. The post office is parodied as inefficient and full of lazy complainers: Also not true. (During the heavy storms that hit Washington over the last few years, the cable, electricity and Internet went out, but I got my mail every day.) And most absurdly, the Postal Service is waved off as some sort of 20th century anachronism, outdated and unnecessary in an era of email and electronic banking. This is the most facile and dangerous of the misperceptions about the service, since it ignores the very important national security function the office provides.

If we get rid of the Postal Service – or even drastically pare it back – we lose a critical communications tool in a national security crisis. One cyberattack could wipe out electronic data and communications. What happens if there’s no way to back it up on paper?

Support your local post office, America. Buy commemorative stamps, send real letters. (Trust me: People appreciate it a lot more than those e-cards.) Stop saying you’re concerned about the environment. (Everyone knows you just don’t feel like writing a message on a card and putting it in the mail.) And online retailers: Why do you ship everything using FedEx and UPS Inc.? Why don’t you use the Postal Service?

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