Oysterville Post Office

     On last night’s news there was the welcome announcement that rural post offices may have yet another reprieve from imminent closure. The Senate has passed a bill that will bar the U.S. Postal Service from closing post offices for one year if they are located in areas of fewer than 50,000 people.  That is definitely us!  It’s also other areas close to our hearts, like Skamokawa.
     Of course, such longed-for decisions are never cut-and-dried.  This one comes with the caveat that Saturday mail deliveries will be discontinued and, further, that there be no community opposition.  And there is yet another big hurdle: the House has not yet agreed.  In fact, they have a different version of the bill entirely.  Still, we are cautiously optimistic.
     The very probable closure of our little 199-patron post office was first scheduled for last December – or at least the announcement was to be made then.  But before that could happen, the Postal Service gave its first reprieve by delaying the closures until May 15^th to give Congress a chance to act.
     So, now we are halfway there.  Presumably the other shoe will drop soon and we will know whether Oysterville and hundreds of other small post offices will be able to stay open for awhile longer.  Though the demise of snail mail as we’ve known it for our lifetime seems almost inevitable, it’s one change that not many people embrace.  I suspect that at least part of our objection is that the decision is based not on need or rights, but on money.
     Somewhere, in the recesses of our minds perhaps, is the idea that our government is of the people, by the people, and for the people.  And smack-dab alongside that hazy thought is the idea our mail service is guaranteed by the Constitution.  The words “privatization” and “profit” and “cost-cutting” don’t really come into it.
     These days, of course, that’s wishful thinking.  Behind every change, popular or unpopular, is a bottom line.  Everything everywhere is all about money.  I guess it always has been.  It’s just the trillion-dollar scale of things that’s changed.  Well… even though our minds boggle, we continue to write letters and send packages and contact our Congressmen.  Hope springs eternal (or at least for awhile longer) here in Oysterville!