HUFFINGTON
07.22.12
CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES
GOINGPOSTAL
lost $3.2 billion in the last quarter
and $3.3 billion in the quarter before that. At this pace, the agency
could run out of money soon.
Americans may soon witness
the fraying of an institution that,
despite the rise of the internet,
they still badly need. Even for
those of us who pay our bills online, the postal service is intertwined in our daily lives, delivering the products we buy, the
magazines we read and, in many
cases, the medications we rely on.
And for those on the less fortunate side of the digital divide, a
society without decent mail service is hard to contemplate. Mail
remains the bind between millions of Americans. For many of
them, the letter carrier is the only
civil servant they see all day. Even
the founders recognized the role a
postal service plays in a democracy, empowering Congress through
the Constitution to create one.
But now, having exhausted its
borrowing abilities, the postal
service could face bankruptcy.
That’s how Syria found itself on
a list of 3,700 post offices around
the country targeted for closure, many of them in rural areas
where the next post office could
be many miles away.
In Syria’s case, their new local
post office would be about 10 miles
south to Madison, the county seat
— not so far as the crow flies, but
U.S. Postmaster
General
Patrick
Donahoe
speaks to
the medi a
about
budget
troubles.