It is easy to feel helpless in this current state of affairs. Every good thing in government is blocked by a committed minority and, otherwise, austerity rules. Corporate fat cats and their lobby cronies get fed champagne and caviar while the rest are left scraping old tuna cans.
It has gotten so bad that even the United States Postal Service is being cut down. Post offices are closing, days are being cut and there is a cry to shut down over the Christmas season. With good old Tom Sullivan calling for better private biz efficiencies, let’s just carve the Post Office up and sell it off to Fed Ex and UPS, eh?
But there is something everyone in Davis could do, starting this Saturday. That is to get people to send you letters and boxes.
Why? Because come Saturday a “count” begins for the next two weeks. This is what determines the size of mail carriers’ routes and how much they make. More mail, better hours and better pay.
But as we all know, mail has been dropping off, so unless there is a quick uptick…
Send letters to everyone you know in town, on your block and in your apartment building. Buy what you were going to have delivered (and have it USPS!) so it will be in the next week or so. Have your folks and friends from out of town send you things (not postcards – they don’t help).
Send letters to YOURSELF, why not?
For half a buck you can make a stand against the direction things have been going. You can show the world Davis knows how to do things right. Again…
And if you are at a loss for what to write, well a single word should do: SOLIDARITY.
Think about it.
And yes, my wife is a Davis carrier.
MIKE SHEPLEY can be reached at mjtomasshepley@aol.com.
