To the editor:

I am deeply troubled that President Trump is threatening to veto the vital Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act if there is any support for the Post Office.

I’m disheartened that Trump would use this crisis to kill an institution, defined by the US Constitutions and led by Ben Franklin himself. My father was a mailman. He started as a substitute letter sorter, then full time, then he carried letters in Rapid City, South Dakota for many years. He knew every road in that town and area and walked most of them. He was bitten by dogs, blistered by sun, wind and cold, and walked miles a day to make sure everyone got their mail. Through wind, snow, and dark of night isn’t just a slogan, it’s a reality.

Like all of our essential workers, those in the postal service are on the front lines of this crisis too – with 100s getting sick because they are willing to do their jobs. For profit carriers can pick and choose what mail they’ll carry, what locations are profitable, and whose houses are just too far away, while the USPS gets handed financial burdens, gets the least profitable work, and then loses support.

This is not the time to cut the essential services that all Americans rely on. Let your representatives know that the postal service is essential – just as it has been in the United States of America since 1775. Before we had a Declaration of Independence or a Constitution we had a postal service. Washington thought it was important, George Washington. Our current leaders in Washington D.C. should remember that.

Aaron Dimock

North Mankato