Dear Editor:

First let me say that I am grateful for our postal employees, they are doing the best they can under difficult circumstances. And I raise these complaints, not only as a criticism of Trump, although he has played a significant role of late in the degradation of this great American institution, but to the economic elites and their congressional lackeys who have for decades undermined and hollowed out the USPS.

Over the past few decades, the USPS has been burdened with private contractors who have not provided savings to the overall service, and an outrageous mandate to pre-fund its pension system unlike any other pension system public or private.

In the past year daily deliveries have been skipped, in some areas for weeks. In my area alone, deliveries have been spotty at times thanks to the unnecessary cuts of thousands of postal jobs implemented in the name of “efficiency.”

Certainly the environment in which the USPS operates has changed with the shift of communications to the internet, but navigating these changes requires something more than a meat ax approach to the service.

The USPS performs some essential services that internet providers do not, such as federal police protection of the mails and certified delivery. Until recently, the post mark provided proof that a letter was received by the post office as of a certain date, but no more, making it impossible to determine when a bill or ballot was mailed.

Behind this is Wall Street’s push to privatize the USPS that would result in cheaper deliveries for the cities but more expensive deliveries in rural areas. Also behind this is Trump’s anti-democratic fear of mail-in ballots.

In some countries the post office serves as a bank of last resort providing check cashing, bill paying, small international money transfers, and reloadable prepaid cards at a reasonable cost. There is no reason why we cannot provide these here.

Let us make America great again by making our intuitions great. Please join me in urging our congressional representatives to save our Post Office.

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay