My father was born and grew up in Woodburn, Iowa, joined the Navy at 17, served in Korea, and eventually settled in California, where I grew up. From time to time our family would pile into the car and take a road trip to Iowa, which might explain why to this day I love road trips and budget motels.
Woodburn is a classic small Midwestern town, beautifully nestled among rolling hills roughly one mile off the state highway. It got its start as a railroad town and its peak population in the early 1900’s was 400 or so. There are towns like this all across America.
There was a grocery store, gas station, meat locker, country school, lumber yard, tavern, telephone exchange, three churches, and a United States Post Office. All of the basic things you need to keep a small town and nearby farms up and running.
The last time I went to Woodburn was two years ago on an Iowa road trip. The grocery store, gas station, meat locker, school and lumber yard were gone. The Disciples of Christ church was still serving its congregants and had helped to restore the closed Catholic church to save the building for posterity. The Methodist church had long ago fallen in a fire. The population had dropped to less than 200. As far as I could see there were two active businesses, the tavern and the post office. If you needed food it was an 11-mile drive to the Hy-Vee grocery store in Osceola.
And there it was on Sigler St., the main street of Woodburn—the United States Postal Service’s small but neatly maintained building, only open two hours a day, but connecting each and every resident of Woodburn and the many nearby farms to the USA and the world, fulfilling the mission of the USPS.
Putting aside the controversy over mail-in ballots, President Trump seems to think this is yet another case where a mega-rich private sector person (who also happens to be a mega-donor to the Trump campaign) can come in and run a government agency more efficiently from day one. So we have Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in charge of our mail.
In my more than 30 years in public service I was often the recipient of this particular arrow: You bureaucrats should be fired and the private sector can do this at half the price. It was always from a person who was angry that I would not or could not accommodate their demand.
We are already seeing the results when a postmaster general with no applicable experience marches in and tries to run a large government agency, firing people left and right and issuing orders without even taking the time to get the lay of the land and ask people with experience and knowledge about what to do and how to do it. He could have easily learned things from someone who has actually worked for the post office and understands how it works.
Earlier this week, Congress was in the mood to ask questions about what the postmaster general has been up to, and why, according to the USPS’s own reporting, on-time mail delivery is declining.
As The Washington Post reported, “Things got plenty heated during Monday’s hearing. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch (D-Mass.) mentioned the many members of his family who had worked for the Postal Service and asked, ‘After 240 years of patriotic service delivering the mail, how can one person screw this up in just a few weeks? Now I understand you bring private sector expertise,’ Lynch continued. ‘I guess we couldn’t find a government worker who could screw it up this fast.’”
Admittedly, the Congressional hearing was largely political theatre, but it was amusing when Rep. Katie Porter (D-Ca.) asked Postmaster General DeJoy the price of mailing a postcard,. He did not know, bringing back memories of George H. W. Bush’s 1992 debate with Bill Clinton when President Bush admitted he did not know the price of a gallon of milk. And it became clear that while Mr. DeJoy may be a multi-millionaire private sector expert on supply chains, he knows precious little about moving the mail.
So I pose this question: what do we want from the United States Postal Service? Do we want it to run as a private sector business, in which case I can assure you the Woodburn post office would be promptly closed, as would hundreds of others across our great nation. Or do we want it to run as an essential public service, helping to keep America connected? Yes, most of us send mail electronically these days, but we depend on the USPS to deliver our packages, prescriptions, greeting cards and so forth. I vote for the USPS as an essential public service that should be properly funded. Room for more efficiency, sure, but still a government agency run for the good of the nation.
A final note about Woodburn. It is still a lovely town, and a cafe has recently opened. If you have never experienced small town America, now (please wear your mask) would be a great time for a road trip. Woodburn residents are right friendly, even if they don’t know you. And please keep an eye out for the local post office. It’s right there on Sigler St. You can’t miss it.
