We’ve seen it on TV.
We hear it on the radio.
It’s made its way to the pages of this newspaper.
The United States Postal Service is in complete disarray.
Social Security checks are not reaching their intended recipients in a timely manner.
By-mail prescriptions are arriving late and in some cases, are getting to patients well after their previous supply has run out.
And somehow, this agency is expected to handle millions of ballots that states are requiring voters use, in some cases, universally.
This is not a debate on whether that will work. Instead, it’s about the women and men, who pound the pavement six days a week, in an effort to ensure we get what the sorting centers do their best at sorting.
This is about the letter carriers who, when this pandemic first hit, were required to go door-to-door, to deliver mail, without being provided masks for protection.
This is about the letter carriers who, when COVID-19 was at its harshest, locally, were sent out to deliver the mail, to homes where most folks were bunkered down, by government order.
This is about a thankless profession.
The women and men who deliver the mail are the clear innocent victims of this mess here. They are the ones we see, representing the USPS on an almost-daily basis.
This is about the letter carriers who have put their lives on the line so that we might get the items in the mail that we need.
They’ve done absolutely nothing wrong. They work diligently. But they are led by people who have absolutely no idea how to fix a broken system.
So in all, this editorial is a way to say thank you to each and every dedicated letter carrier, who is out there, whether rain, or sleet, or snow, or hail, is the weather of the day. They were out there when very few others were. Despite the people for whom they work, they deserve our praise and thanks.
Learn more about the writer ...
Kevin A. Canessa Jr. is the editor of and broadcaster at The Observer, a place where he has served on and off since 2006. He is responsible for the editorial content of the newspaper and website, the production of the e-Newspaper, writing several stories per week (including the weekly editorial), conducting live broadcasts on Facebook Live, including a weekly recap of the news — and much more behind the scenes. Between 2006 and 2008, he introduced the newspaper to its first-ever blog — which included podcasts, audio and video. Originally from Jersey City, Kevin lived in Kearny until 2004, lived in Port St. Lucie. Florida, for four years until February 2016 and in March of that year, he moved back to West Hudson to return to The Observer full time. Click Here to send Kevin an email.