We're pulling for the Postal Service

The U.S. Postal Service in this region can't catch a break these days.

Already hampered by employee shortages and the bureaucratic inertia that is all too often inherent in large governmental agencies, the Postal Service has been dealing with a small but dangerous mercury spill at one of its suburban St. Louis facilities. The unexplained spill prompted officials to close post offices in Hazelwood and De Soto, and the cascading effects resulted in local packages getting shipped to Cape Girardeau and points much farther away (Des Moines, Iowa, for example) for sorting.

USPS officials have been stingy with information in both the mercury spill incident and their ongoing staffing issues. And that's too bad. People want to know — need to know, in many cases — that their mail is getting where it needs to go or coming to them in a timely manner. This is an example of not wanting to impugn the messenger for bad news but rather imploring the messenger to give us the straight story.

Our nation's postal system predates our nation. It has been and is vital to commerce, as many businesses — including this one — count on and are thankful for mail and package deliveries to even the most rural areas of our country. The Postal Service is also part of our societal fabric. Birthday cards. Christmas gifts. Letters from home to military troops around the world. And for many millions of Americans, including the elderly and veterans, the Postal Service is the vehicle for shipments of life-saving and life-sustaining medications.

Competitors have emerged and provide valuable shipping services, but the Postal Service is a personal and economic lifeline we depend on each day.

We need the Postal Service. We respect those dedicated individuals working for it, especially those locally whom we know. We want them and the entire service to operate safely and efficiently. We're pulling for them.