I tell you, it’s not Rodney Dangerfield that doesn’t get any respect, it’s the great blue-clad horde that day in and day out successfully, efficiently, and faithfully delivers the mail! Sure there are those bozos who give us all a bad name. And plenty of pictures, headlines, and atrocities to boot. Still, it wasn’t letter carriers that made life happy, happy, happy for a while with their government credit cards in Vegas was it? No. (Too bad that info didn’t stay in Vegas!) Now we’ve all got an albatross tied around our necks!
You don’t hear much about the everyday rank and file mailmen and mail women the public depends upon unless they get in some kind of trouble. If you’re an insider, one of us, you probably get the monthly magazines about the USPS and read about some heroes…and also some scumbags, but the public only hears about the scum-bags and then links us all together! We need better press!
The NALC Food Drive is just around the corner and it’s time for us to step up! This is one event where we really outshine any kind of competition. It’s only right. These are our neighborhoods too! Only letter carriers know the sacrifices made by the poorest of customers, who often put to shame the wealthiest. But boy, are they happy to see us coming and helping and hoping. Sometimes it’s the poor who appreciate us the most.
But after the Food Drive, what’s next? We need to get our stories out there and educate the public on who we really are! Not just the horror stories. Not just the shootings or dog attacks or stupid thieves who take gift cards and cash out of our customers precious birthday cards. We need what the Press would call positive spin. We need to hear some good, heart-warming, humorous, and motivating stories about what letter carriers are really like! Let’s put a face and a story next to our plight. Let’s let the public inside our heads and hearts. Let’s not let the politicians distort our service, sell-out our pensions, and simply dehumanize us as so much useless work hours.
Move over, Rodney. You get too much respect.