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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0><tr><td valign=top style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='color:#1F497D'>Blisterfree said:<br>“</span>USPS would do far better to focus on larger population centers, consolidate and streamline operations there, where the drive to another postal facility or business is reasonably convenient, then to shutter small town post offices and completely shut out wide swaths of the countryside. Ben Franklin would have been appalled and we should be too<span style='color:#1F497D'>.”</span><br><br><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Early last month the very, very nice post master (mistress??) in Mimbres gave Lucky Joe and I a ride into Silver City and then back the next morning, and talking with her en route got me thinking about this issue a little. I’ve been a city/suburb boy my whole life, but walking through all of these small towns makes a person think (or at least, it should do …).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>An interesting point to me is that, apart from how fundamentally important these rural post offices are to their communities, there’s not a huge budget win from closing them. According to a publication aimed at postal employees, <br>“<i>Closing 3700 Rural Post Offices Would Save Less Than 3/10s Of One Percent Of USPS Operating Budget</i>”. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Here’s the full article: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/6uek8ao">http://tinyurl.com/6uek8ao</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Folks of different political stripe have different philosophical views on the proper role of government. IMO, most such views would best acknowledge postal service --- even in the age of the internet --- to be a fairly basic role of government, to get the mail to even relatively rural places. To include places where that’s not economic for the likes of UPS and FedEx to compete. <o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr></table><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>