America’s postal service is a rural lifeline—and it’s in jeopardy

Rural post offices and mail carriers connect our smallest towns to the world and provide a sense of community. But a burdensome financial structure, and lack of federal aid amid a pandemic, threaten their future.

Seco, Kentucky’s post office is open two hours a day, making it one among thousands of rural United States Postal Service (USPS) locations with reduced hours, a cost-cutting strategy that has disproportionately affected non-urban and low-income Americans.

When I was growing up on a small wheat farm in Kansas, employment by the postal service struck me as venerable. One of my best friends was the daughter of the postmaster in the small town where I attended middle school, and with my limited socioeconomic awareness I viewed their resulting middle-class stability as “rich.” Once I owed my friend a bit of change and for some reason mailed the few coins to her in a stamped envelope. The next time I saw her postmaster father, he shook his head and told me the lumpy envelope had been shredded as it passed through processing equipment intended for flat letters.

Never having seen a mail-sorting machine, I misunderstood his explanation and thought

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