Licking the Stamp

     Benjamin Franklin started the Postal Service in 1775 but the United States Postal Service we know today started in 1792.  If we want the mail to remain a vital American institution in a digital age, changes in the system and our attitude about the service must change.
    The Postal Service tried to end Saturday delivery but the United States Congress would not stand for that.  Most of America was for that change but when has the current Congress done anything the majority of Americans demand?  Instead Congress votes with those who contribute to their political campaigns and thumb their noses at the average Joe.  Labor Unions, direct mail marketers and periodical publishers are the ones who sing the tune for the Postal Service.  They along with the postal parcel service feared a five day delivery service and demanded that Saturday delivery continue.  As far as I am concerned  the only thing continued Saturday delivery does is continue the irreversible death spiral of the Postal Service.
    One of the few remaining rights to personal privacy is United States Postal Service.  Even the government's eyes are restricted from the content one puts into an envelope   I've licked a lot of things in my life but a stamp certainly has to be the most important.  Maybe that lick is what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they insisted in the privacy of the mail service. Those fathers probably did not know the Postal Service would someday be considered an essential element of civilization.  No matter how important I think the Postal Service is  I am not quite ready to put it in the same class with democracy.  The Postal Service is a public service with a civic mandate.  It should not be treated as a business but if it is to survive Congress must allow it to start acting like one.