Letter to the - Editor
Letter to the Editor
Where’d my mail go?
About three months ago, a payment was mailed to the Abby bank. The check was put in the mailbox in front of the Abbotsford Post Office. For those of you not familiar with Abbotsford, the post office and Abby Bank are about one block apart. A few days later the individual that mailed the check called to see it the check had been credited to my account. I checked and it hadn’t been, however, nine days later the check did make that one block trip and was received at the bank.
On the 29th of December I received a Christmas card and a birthday card in Texas. Both were postmarked December 15. That is 15 days, Abbotsford to Pearland Texas. And I may add, late for my birthday and Christmas.
On January 22 my wife mailed an envelope with checks in it for our property tax. That envelope was to go to the Abbotsford City Hall. On Friday the 2nd of February I learned that the envelope had not arrived at the city hall in Abbotsford. Now I am concerned, this wasn’t a greeting card or a rent payment, it is my property tax payment. This mail process stinks, there has to be a better way.
I did some research, according to Wikipedia and there are some versions of the facts about when the Pony Express started, but it was around 1860. At that time the Pony express would move the mail from St. Joseph, Mo. to Sacramento, Calif. The west was developing, however there wasn’t any railroad service to the west and there also wasn’t a telegraph line. There was stagecoach travel but that took three weeks to make the trip from St. Joseph to Sacramento. So along comes the Pony Express.
Pony Express riders would ride 75 to 100 miles changing horses every 10 to 15 miles. At that time another rider was ready and waiting to move it on. Most of the riders were small teenagers as they were light and easier for the horses to carry. One of those riders was reported to be 11 years old. The horses would travel between 10 and 12.5 miles per hour. They moved the mail that route from St. Joseph to Sacramento in ten days. They rode through rain, snow, sleet, hail and unfriendly encounters.
Using that as a standard, if I had mailed my taxes from Texas to Wisconsin using the Pony Express my taxes would have arrived in Abbotsford no later than January 30th. It is now February 12th and it would appear, or I hope, they are still in route.
I don’t fault the employees at the local post offices as they don’t have any control over the mail once it leaves their office. This problem is purely caused by incompetent leadership. When Congress gets done impeaching Alejandro Mayorkas for the mismanagement of the border, they should move on to the Postmaster General, Louis Dejoy.
I’m sure Donald Trump would say, I can see that I made a mistake when I appointed him.
Ronald V. Gosse Abbotsford
