On Saturday August 22, Americans at over 1,000 post offices across the nation held Save Our Post Office Day rallies. Here in Westchester, several rallies took place in Yonkers, Hastings, White Plains, Ardsley and Peekskill.
“At 11:00 today at over 1,000 post offices across the nation including a half dozen In Westchester and one in Yonkers where I was, citizens stepped forward to demand that this fundamental institution be protected – so important that on July 26, 1775, the U.S. postal system was established by the Second Continental Congress, with Benjamin Franklin as its first postmaster general,” said former Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick.
The rallies, organized by MoveOn, Indivisible and other progressive organizations, called on Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to resign in the wake of mail slowdowns and on Congress to “protect and save the post office from Donald Trump.”
In White Plains, congressional candidate Mondaire Jones said that he had joined a lawsuit to sue President Donald Trump for the recent cuts and changes to the Post Office. “In the midst of a global pandemic requiring more Americans to vote by mail than ever before, the USPS provides a public service that is essential to free and fair elections this November. The actions of the President and Postmaster General to undermine the USPS are a deliberate assault on our democracy,” said Jones. “I will not stand idly by while Trump makes his latest interference in our electoral process. This isn’t just an attack against the fabric of our democracy — it’s a personal attack against each and every American citizen.”
In addition to concerns about the Post Office handling the millions of absentee ballots in November, other concerns about recent changes to slower service and Post Office cuts include Veterans receiving their medication on time, and seniors receiving their Social Security checks in a timely manner.
The financial troubles at the Post Office were exasperated during the Coronavirus, when Americans mailed fewer and fewer pieces of mail. The result from those who want to save the USPS was to have every American buy a book (or more) of stamps. Whether or not that will help bail out the Post Office is unclear, but it can’t hurt.
