Editor,

The post office used to be a place one could register to vote, apply for a passport, cash a money order, meet neighbor sand chat with the postmaster.

Today, we hear many disparaging remarks to discredit this institution that has been the heart of our communities since Benjamin Franklin was appointed by the Continental Congress to be the first postmaster general in 1775.

The goal of this administration is to cast doubt on the postal service’s honesty and creditability. Louis DeJoy, appointed in June 2020, a Trump loyalist, is bent on restructuring it, no matter how many petitions ones signs to say it is useful in our community.

Recently in the news was a story about a postmaster in Maine who was told to slow down first class mail and delay Amazon deliveries.

Since March, with the outbreak of COVID-19, we have all looked for ways to not be in public. Going to the post office was something we gave up and had our mail forwarded from the post office box that I have had for almost 30 years to our street address. I begin to notice I was not getting my magazine subscriptions, The weekly Guardian News, I pay dearly for and comes first class, doesn’t show up and people were telling me their cards were being returned.

In calling the post office I was deflected to an 800 number with electronic prompts that answered none of my questions. Today, I suited up with mask and hand wipes to talk to a real person. I was told my forwarding address is good until September. They could do nothing as the forwarding is machine generated.

Please tell me that I have not bought into one of Trump’s theories that the post office is on its way out because it is too risky and fraught with fraud. We have been voting by mail for many years and now I am made to feel that my vote has not been valid and may have been tampered with.

I have mailed thousands of dollars. I have received payments from land settlements and other legal papers. I mail my taxes to the United State Treasury. We are depending on U.S. Postal Service more to have items sent to our door during this pandemic and because we grow older and are unable to get out.

Please speak out for keeping the post office. It is good for business. What has our country come to if we can not trust the post office

Millie Fonda

Coupeville