I like the post office. For as long as I can remember I have liked the U.S. Postal System. When we were kids, home during the summer, running like street urchins through the neighborhood, it was always fun to see the little postal truck driving around. It meant the mail was coming, like clockwork, and that made my Mom happy. There was always a little level of excitement when she’d flip through the stack of mail. Then she would announce, dejectedly, “Bills, bills, bills.” Not much was ever there in the way for us kids either. Except for the day that the big fat JC Penny catalog rolled in. We could hardly wait to get our grubby little hands on that thing and start circling items for Christmas. But the mail was like a little prize in the middle of the day.
The history behind our post office is long and interesting. I won’t go into all the details here, as it is readily available at the USPS website if you want the whole shebang. https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/welcome.htm
At any rate, now it is in danger of being dismantled. Defunded. Disintegrated. I won’t go into this debacle either. Once again, you can read a flurry of accounts of this, at many credible news sites around the world. The short version? Our current Post Master General, appointed by Donald Trump is pulling it apart, stamp by stamp, in an attempt to alter the upcoming elections in November.
But once upon a time, there were happier scenes in the land of postage. If you go back to this date, 161 years ago, for example, you will find just that. Yes, on August 17, 1859, the first official airmail flight took place in Lafayette, Indiana. You might have noticed that was long before airplanes. But that first delivery came at the hands of John Wise and his famous balloon Jupiter.
Actually, the bright idea to deliver the mail via hot air balloon wasn’t such a great one. The challenge was to fly 123 letters placed in a sealed bag from Lafayette to New York. Crowds and crowds of people arrived to watch Jupiter take off, up, up, and away. I bet they held up little streamers and had party snacks. But the whole celebration was for not. Unfortunately, about five hours into the flight, poor weather conditions sent dear John Wise, and his balloon Jupiter heading in the wrong direction. This forced Wise to drop the package below using a parachute. He then followed it to the ground with his balloon. The package was collected and taken to the Crawfordsville Post Office where it was placed on a train heading to the East Coast.
So even though the flight failed to reach its target destination, it was the first time post was delivered by airmail in the United States. Sort of.
Air Mail, by plane, didn’t start for another 60 years or so. When airmail began in 1918, airplanes were still a fairly new invention, so that brought a whole new round of challenges.
But that’s the thing. We don’t always get fair weather. History has shown us quite a few storms. Thankfully, for the most part, reasonable, sound-minded people, smart people, have been in high places to help us figure out these challenges. Sound-minded was “key” in that last sentence. This country has had, and still needs, leaders who have sworn that precious oath to serve the people — and who mean it. That’s their job. And the ones that are there to serve themselves, for power, for money, for supremacy, are not there for us. And shame on them.
The best thing, the only thing, really, that we can do, is to vote for leaders who we trust will serve our best interests. Vote any way we can, no matter how hard they make it. We have to be bigger, together. Stronger as one. We must vote.
You may have to drive to the polls, that day. Who knows. But for heaven’s sake, don’t go by way of your hot air balloon.
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“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”
― William James
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“Don’t tell me about your god with your words. Show me about your god with your actions.”
― Steve Maraboli,
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“Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity.”
― Roy Bennett
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