Just Sayin’: Postal Service should offer money back
Mail for one route in the Mid-City section of New Orleans is sorted and waits to be picked up by recipients at the New Orleans post office on Feb. 23, 2006. Credit: AP
Postal Service should offer money back
When will we be able to hold the U.S. Postal Service accountable for poor service? I applaud the countless successful transactions they perform, but other businesses are not allowed to lose a package and say, we’re sorry but it’s lost, and you can’t make a claim because you didn’t insure it. Insurance is a hefty addition to the already high price of postage.
The tracking service is helpful, if all goes well. But it’s useless if something goes awry.
I mailed a small package containing handmade earrings to my sister in Florida. A few days later, the tracker showed that it had arrived at the Boynton Beach post office and was out for delivery. That was February!
As an acknowledgment of this failure to perform, I think they owe me the cost of the postage. My local postmaster looked me straight in the eye and said that was not possible.
Why not? Why are they permitted to take your money and not perform the service? This was not a big monetary loss for me; it’s the principle.
Grace O’Connor,West Islip
The importance of understanding each other across walls
The talk of walls, both physical and metaphorical, dominates our headlines. Cries to isolate us from a southern neighbor, to prevent our skies from dropping those with different heritages into our midst, and attempts to engender fear of conflicting views have permeated our collective psyche.
In our lawmaking institutions, ideologues dig in on both sides, refusing to consider the other’s position, seeming to be contrary for its own sake. Despite this, the rewards of interacting and learning from our diversity are immeasurable.
Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Wall” explores two men who meet during spring to put the rocks back on an old wall that separates their properties, filling in the gaps. There is no reason for it that either one can remember other than the fact that it has been standing for a long time.
Similarly, our traditions and prejudices construct and obstruct empathy and compassion. Frost wrote, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down.”
Our inner good can allow us to extend a hand over the barrier, keep the gaps open and try to understand each other.
John Ricciardelli, Miller Place
