Why We Need to Protect the Post Office
Support the Protect the Post Office Petition Below
Today, at least for this post, I am going to change things up. Please support this petition—courtesy of Robert Reich and others—to support the USPS in this very challenging time.
Here is a letter I wrote (with help of the petition organizers, of course) in support of the USPS, one of our nation’s oldest and most treasured institutions:
“Dear USPS Board Secretary Elston and USPS Board of Governors members,
My name is David Salzillo. I am a member of a family with long roots in the USPS. For decades my grandfather was president of NALC Branch 15 (Providence, Rhode Island). My father later went on to represent federal workers (including federal post office workers) in their efforts to receive federal workers' compensation and disability retirement. He has practiced in this valuable field of federal workers' compensation and disability retirement law for almost 40 years.
Thus, I know the importance of the USPS and all that it stands for. Which is why I urge you to please stand strong against Donald Trump’s unlawful attempt to fire the Board and seize control of the United States Postal Service. The USPS is an independent agency created under the original U.S. Constitution, and you have a legal and constitutional duty to protect it. Besides, you know as well as I how many working people depend on the Post Office to deliver their mail and packages. The USPS is a lifeline to so many across this country—a lifeline that the Trump Republican Party is apparently hellbent on stealing for their own profit.
The Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 removed the USPS from the president’s Cabinet, ensuring that it operates free from political interference (for very good reason, given Trump and DeJoy’s 2020 election shenanigans). Trump’s reported executive order to fire the Board is unconstitutional. If he succeeds, it will pave the way for service cuts, price hikes, and the eventual privatization of our public mail service. Ben Franklin must be rolling in his grave just at the suggestion of such a thing.
You are leaders responsible for the well-being of the Postal Service. You are also on the front lines of the fight to preserve our democracy. If Trump can attack the Post Office, which is established directly in the original Constitution, then we may find that he has the power to go after much of everything else. Moreover, he may use that power to further attack vote-by-mail and undermine the sacred right of the American people to vote in free and fair elections.
That would be a disaster never before seen in this country's 250-year history. Please do not let him do it. You must reject this illegal firing attempt. Not just for the Post Office, but for the country as a whole. If Trump tries to fire you, stay in office, and, if necessary, take legal action to uphold the USPS’s independence.
Millions of Americans, especially rural communities, veterans, small businesses, and seniors, depend on the Postal Service. If you do not stand for them, who else is left? Who else will listen to their plight? Donald Trump? J.D. Vance? Or maybe the billionaires that prop up their pathetic political careers?
History is watching you. Our Founders and the Framers of our Constitution are watching you. And the world is watching you as it wonders what will be the fate of the greatest experiment in self-government in the history of the earth. Please know that I will always stand with you in defense of the USPS, and I urge you to fight back against this unconstitutional attack with every bit of fight you have left.
‘In the name of democracy, let us all unite!’
Keep the faith and continue the struggle,
David.”
P.S. Here’s a little fun fact for my fellow Rhode Islanders. The United States Post Office was actually established on July 26, 1775, based on a national postal system plan designed by William Goddard of The Providence Gazette (which would later become the present-day Providence Journal).
Thanks no doubt to the efforts of Rhode Island Continental Congress representative Stephen Hopkins, the Rhode Island system became the model for the national one and Benjamin Franklin became the country’s first Postmaster General.