When I was four or so, I loved watching Saturday morning cartoons.

In anticipation of hanging out with Bugs Bunny, Mighty Mouse, and Tom Terrific (while enjoying a bowl of Coco Puffs), I’d fire up the family’s behemoth Zenith console and watch grayish test patterns until broadcasting started for the day.

I don’t know if it was Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck or which cartoon character, but I remember a humanized talking animal reciting the postal service motto with great reverence. These days the pledge is full of irony.

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

I have been unhappy about long waits at the closest full-service P.O., but I have had very good experiences at many. I love being able to send cards or packages through the mail. I like being able to put mail delivery on hold while I am on vacation (rather than asking a neighbor to collect it for me.).

Although my use of the Postal Service has declined over the years because of email, there are still times when it is my preferred method for getting a written document or small item to someone. In general, I’m a fan.

This past week, my Big Yellow Taxi lyrics contemplation — “Don’t it always seem to go,
that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone” — met up with the political uproar of the day.

It’s been so hard to believe that efforts have been made to gut or diminish this cherished institution. And, I know I wouldn’t feel its absence as much as many, as much as people who depend on low-cost medicine deliveries or consistent receipt of social security checks.

And now — during A PANDEMIC, weeks away from one of the most important elections ever facing the country — this is definitely not the time to debate the pros and cons of running this service-providing agency like a business. (I believe it’s the only government agency that actually produces some revenue.)

When my email box started filling up with appeals from political organizations some months ago, to “Save the USPO,” I considered what actions I needed to take.  (I am usually grateful for being able to do something, no matter how small, that might move things in the right direction.)

Contributing to a grassroots organization, writing my senators and house rep, calling people in another state to encourage the same of them, joining a demonstration; there are many actions I can take.

Almost every day, I try to consider how to support saving the PO, as it’s important to me, without resenting the situation. I don’t think I should have to worry about “saving” it from the government itself.

It’s been easy to see The Donald as an evil cartoon character, a sort of anti-Bugs Bunny or anti-Rocky the Flying Squirrel. My God. He’s orange and speaks with a nine year-old’s vocabulary.

But the Donald, and so many that have gone along with his agenda, have placed greed over good, self-interest over the common good. There’s a streak in our culture that glorifies that, that sees people as winners and losers, that only measures things based on money and profitability.

While the current president, facing his unpopularity, might be deliberately working to undermine mail-in voting, he has found good political cover in congressmen that tout the importance of fiscal responsibility and efficiency.

The postal service is part of our country’s INFRASTRUCTURE, like roads and bridges. People depend on it. We fund the army, the US Corps of Engineers, and other government departments that provide services for the country without expecting them to make a profit.

I’m sure we can learn how to manage postal services more efficiently. Still, the integrity of the pledge, that neither extreme weather nor “gloom of night” should be allowed to interfere with serving the common good, needs to stay at the forefront of our minds.

I will keep considering ways to support the PO. I am thankful for people and organizations that champion the common good.

Having confidence that I’ll be able to see my corner mail box at the corner next month is no small thing.