Get our postal workers the help they need

I am 81 years old. I receive my prescriptions by mail. My prescriptions arrived at the Carbondale Post Office on Dec. 20 according to their tracking. I still have not received them as of Dec. 27.

According to their tracking information “Delivery was attempted unsuccessfully” on Dec. 17, and that I need to request redelivery before Jan. 4 or they will be returned to sender. My mail is delivered to a mail room at my complex that is open 24 hours a day. The mail truck comes every day. It is not true that delivery was attempted.

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This is often the case. We get notices to pick up our mail because it was “undeliverable,” or that the mail was “put in a locker” that doesn’t exist. These are codes the carriers use to get credit for on time delivery, but in fact the items are stacked up in bins and shelves and have not yet made it to, or off, the carrier’s truck.

I have stood in line at the post office with several people who got the same message, trying to pick up their undeliverable packages and wanting to know why they were undeliverable. You would think the post office workers at the counter would get tired of fending us off and tell their carriers to use a different code that reflects the actual reason — it is here, but we can’t handle the load.

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I have called, I have stood in crowded lines in the time of COVID-19. The answer is the same. There is no way for the person at the counter to search for your package — they are all backed up. Be patient. The carrier is doing their best. Don’t worry, the package is not in a “locker.” It will eventually be delivered. Your receptacle is acceptable, there is no problem except we are backed up.

I am sympathetic to the postal workers. I understand the political failure to support the post office and even attempts to undermine it. This is a system provided by the constitution to keep the country connected. I don’t care if someone has to call in the National Guard, get these postal workers some help. Modernize their systems; don’t destroy them.

In the meantim, can someone deliver my prescriptions to me?

Carolyn Jemison

Carbondale

If you’re able, pass your stimulus check on to those in need

Assuming that COVID-19 stimulus checks are issued, I encourage all who are able to join me in donating some or all of their $600 to those who need it more. 

I’m not well off; I could certainly use an extra $600. But I’ve been fortunate to have had a paycheck all this year, so I really don’t feel entitled to relief. The way I see it, the money was accidentally delivered to me and it’s no sacrifice to pass it on because it was never mine. 

There are many nonprofits worthy of your support, including several local ones that are providing emergency assistance during this historically difficult time. Your donation will make a great difference to them and the people they serve.

Dave Reed

Carbondale

Times are better now

I read this quote from a letter writer and am dumbfounded by the context it is attributed to. George P. Schultz did not write the quote “trust in the coin of the realm”; that was David Gergen — a Republican who voted for Joe Biden. 

Schultz is 100 years old. He was a friend to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Nixon was like Trump in so many ways, and Reagan, a former B movie star, thought he could be a president. Remember trickle-down economics? It was fuzzy voodoo math where the rich get richer, and the rest of us get the little that trickles down. Economists since then tell us that whole idea was misleading and false.  

How about my favorite quote from Sinclair Lewis, the famous author from around World War II? He said, “Beware of the fascists, they will come to America draped in our flag while carrying a bible.” Sound familiar? The past four years of my life seemed like I was watching that unfold in front of me, especially after Charlotte, NC.  

But times are better now. We have a vaccine, more people are wearing masks, and we will get to a point after Biden takes office where fewer people will be dying.

Opinion writers to this newspaper should not feel sorry for Biden. He, through his compassion, intelligence, experience and respect for our allies, will turn this mess around. The majority of Americans think so, too. We have just one villain now: Russia. Christmas is over — the first one and last one during the times of the pandemic. I noticed when I look over the gifts they all had a stamp on the bottom that says “made in China.” If China is so bad, why do we allow them to fill our stores, and online shopping sites with things made there? I do not know. It seems we always have to have a villain to be angry at these days. Marxists, communists and socialists hate the Chinese, like the Russians.  

Really? Alice through the looking glass.  Everything has been turned on its head.

Good things ahead.

Steven Gluckman

Glenwood Springs