28 routes at the Minnehaha Station. Each with a regular carrier. Probably at least 8 city carrier assistants
as well. Perhaps 10 clerks, some
distribution, some retail. Probably 2-3
supervisors. One manager. And thousands of customers, people who depend
on the mail. Businesses of all shapes
and description, churches, clinics, assisted living centers. People who rent or own houses or live in
apartments. Families, grandparents,
mothers, brothers, fathers, sisters, cousins.
28 routes for delivery with about
17,000 total stops. Now, that’s not to
ignore the thousands of people who walk in the door to purchase stamps, to send
packages, to pick up their PO Box mail, to track packages that haven’t arrived
yet, to bring up delivery concerns, to change their address. People from every single background, every
culture, every orientation. Everyone
equally gets mail. Everyone equally gets
delivery.
28 routes in that building. The same goes for those working behind the
scenes, bringing that mail to your doors each and every day. You’d be hard pressed to find a more diverse
workforce. From retail clerks to
carriers, from mailhandlers to maintenance, from distribution clerks to
supervisors, from postmasters to managers.
People of every race, color, creed, background, culture, orientation all
working together to bring a common goal: to bring the people of the United
States their mail.
28 routes came out of a building
that constantly brings other cultures to the national social consciousness via
the people, images, and historically important events that are acknowledged by
being placed on US postage. For instance,
previous African-American individuals who have been honored on US postage include Booker
T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Oscar Micheaux, Duke
Ellington, Jesse Owens, Rosa Parks, Nat ‘King’ Cole, Mahalia Jackson, and Maya
Angelou. This year alone had a Black
Heritage series release honoring Gwen Ifill and the Voices of the Harlem Renaissance
tribute stamp sheet came out recently in May. And this is just one of the cultures and
events so honored by US postage. The contributions of these individuals, the importance of the historical events, the terrific influence felt by so many lives touched cannot be understated.
28 routes
of delivery where even a worldwide pandemic didn’t stop the mail. While other businesses closed, the post
office didn’t. While others went to
curbside service or pick-up only, postal delivery still went out. Every single person in the United States with
an address continued to receive their mail.
The carriers took extra precautions, the clerks took extra precautions,
the management took extra precautions.
The lobbies, the plants, the retail counters all took extra precautions
to provide the continuity of service for the American public. Some semblance of normalcy was gained from
seeing that carrier in that truck coming to your home or going to that office
to buy stamps. Despite the face masks or
plastic shielding, it still was a touchpoint back to what everything was prior
to this virus taking hold.
28 routes. Probably close to 50 employees bringing
thousands of people their mail during the week from that office. Until this week. This week the mail actually stopped coming
from there. Now it takes quite an
amazing event to prohibit delivery.
Wildfires or a flood for instance.
A bridge collapsing or an epic dangerous blizzard or a polar vortex. Hurricanes and tornadoes. Usually, the mail goes back out the next day
or a week later depending on the veracity of the event, but it goes back out.
28 routes where thousands of people
depended on that lifeline of mail.
Especially in Minnesota, where the COVID restrictions were tight, people
relied more and more on the mail as they were under stay at home orders. It was a way to receive items needed for
daily life, a way to receive medicine, a way to send a letter or a gift card or
just some way to connect in a far more personal way than the internet could
ever provide.
28 routes went up in smoke this
week. Righteous outrage and peaceful
protest disintegrated into mob rule, chaos, and violent rioting. One hears a lot about collateral damage as an
excuse for this violence. Yet this
certainly wasn’t collateral, this was deliberate damage. It was done on purpose. And now the original protest message has been
distorted and molded into destroying lives from all walks of life, all backgrounds,
all cultures, all races. When you attack the mail, you attack everyone. Everyone suffers equally.
28 routes in a town where just
weeks before these same carriers and clerks and thousands like them nationwide were
lauded as heroes for working during the pandemic. And now?
A burned out shell. The PO Box
section where their neighbors would get their mail looks like a bomb hit
it. The mail, which in some cases was a
literal lifeline where people could get medicine and checks, was
destroyed. The packages that people
ordered, trying to obey stay at home orders the best they could, were reduced
to a cinder in the blink of an eye.
28 routes that were serviced, like
routes across the country, by people from all backgrounds. One of the most amazing sights I ever saw
from the postal service was when we were working nights in Milwaukee at the plant. It was incredible to see people from every
single background working together. We
were the definition of a melting pot.
Black and white, Hispanic and Asian, men and women, young and old, gay
and straight, all different religious or non-religious backgrounds. Being on 3rd shift, we were all
tired, yet we all had a job to do. Together. All equals, no privilege other than being
able to work where we all did.
28 routes from an organization where
anyone from any background could apply and get hired. And in spreading ignorant hatred, that station was
incinerated by a rioting mob that hijacked a worthwhile cause, directly damaging
that cause through their violence. This
was an outrageous punch in the face to a non-discriminating workplace and
organization. And even despite all this destruction,
the postal service is going to get the mail to people safely.
28 routes. And how many of those routes were now closed
by blind, seething rage and hatred? Will
they ever all fully come back? Can they? As far as the postal service’s side of it is
concerned, it is certainly stronger than the angry mobs that not only destroyed
the Minnehaha Station and damaged other Minneapolis offices as well but also vandalized
other offices across the nation. And
once again, this hopefully provides an opportunity to show others by example how the
postal service works together. All of us. All backgrounds. All races.
Perhaps
the rest of the nation could take a page from the postal service book and learn a lesson together from these 28 routes.
