If This Is How The Post Office Works, How Will We Survive National Health Care?

As you may have deduced I have just had an incident with the Post Office that got me upset. I decided to detail a little bit of it for you as it relates to attempting to deal with a government bureaucracy. God have mercy on us all if a National Health Care bureaucracy is formed in this America of ours. Our health may then be at the mercy of some of the electronic (email) responses I have been subjected to and worse yet to some human employees who think they can’t get fired: that they are protected by the bureaucracy. The mere thought of it makes me shudder.

Here is what happened. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions, but if you are like me you will end up being afraid, very afraid of a National Health Care System that leaves us, and our health care at the mercy of some bureaucratic and politically well-intentioned hacks.

I sent someone an important priority mail envelope with delivery confirmation attached so I could be sure they received it and know when they did. Although normally I get daily updates that it was processed in Bethpage and went to Orlando Florida and then on to its final destination and was delivered at XX o’clock on XX date. This time and 8 days later all I got was it was processed and left Bethpage. To be fair it was delivered after eight days.

Using the suggested Post Office email submission forms for problem resolution I went through a series of 8 plus messages back and forth telling me it was too early, I would have to wait before they documented whether it was lost or not and then a call from my local post office saying they had been appointed problem liaison resolution agent, and asking if I had received delivery of my priority mail package yet.

After choking back my frustration I responded quite calmly that I was the sender not the receiver and what I wanted was confirmation that my mail had been delivered. This very nice man from my local post office told me that he would try and track it, but he doubted he would find it.

In the meantime I was going back and forth with emails to the general post office – notice I use lower case now when referring to them, which should give you some idea what I think about them. I told them that I found them unresponsive to my questions and to paraphrase not the sharpest stick in the bunch. They replied that they didn’t have to respond to abusive comments or language – I never swore out loud or in writing to them even though I did and still do feel like doing that.

My last comment from them came saying they were sorry and would now turn it over to my local post office. I responded that they already had and asking what was wrong with them. I had already told them that my local post office thought I was receiving the priority mail package rather than sending it all of which feel on deaf ears or eyes or non seeing robots for all I know who were scanning my email for keywords to respond to.

I got a new email in response to tell me that they thanked me for my recent communication and would be back to me in a day or two. Can you imagine if this was National Health Care and you were seriously ill or your child was having an acute appendicitis attack?

What got me mad enough to write this did not have to deal with less then human responses or the frustration of my lost mail, but something that happened coincidentally this afternoon to my wife and I. We had just gotten on a bus to go shopping on the West side of New York when while the bus driver was still at a dead stop someone banged on the door with a crutch to let her in. It was a young woman on 2 metal arm brace crutches who only had one leg. The bus driver sat there for a few minutes stuffing his face with a bag of potato chips much of which was landing on his uniform, and wouldn’t open the bus door to let her in.

I am writing this article because I am not sure whether I am madder at this bad news heartless bus driver or myself for not jumping up and insisting he open the door. I don’t jump so good any more, but I could have sounded out loud and clear, and I didn’t. To my eternal shame I did nothing and neither did any one else on the bus.

I think the problem is that we as a people have become so used to not trying to buck the bureaucracy that we don’t sound off and complain any more. We sit there as we have been trained to and do nothing assuming it is hopeless. We have been taught not to make waves.

I still have a mental image of this young woman hobbling off on her crutches without complaint with a stoic look on her face as if what happened to her was normal, but I don’t think its normal to accept this kind of cold craven behavior.

What are we going to do when an email comes to us saying in response to your urgent request for medical care that they will be back to you in a day or two, or they are sorry and are now retuning your request to your local office? What are you going to do when your child is sick and you get one of these non responsive bureaucratic emails telling you it is too early to take action – that you must wait five business days to see if she or he is really sick. Are you just going to sit there and lose your health, your family’s and maybe you or their lives? I could have used a lot more sanguine images here, but my intent is not to scare you to death – only to help keep you and yours healthy and at least give you a fighting chance.

As I say draw your own conclusions. Then the next time you vote be sure it is for someone who really cares about you and your family’s health and is not just another part of the bureaucracy. Be sure you hold accountable everyone who won’t open the door to your needy request while stuffing his or her face with your taxpayer dollars.

If we don’t take a stand our whole system of government may become unresponsive, and the door to decent customer service and government support may stay closed. First the post office won’t deliver our mail, then public transportation won’t open the door to pick us up, and finally we will be left without proper medical care because the system knows it can be unresponsive to our needs and get away with it. Don’t let the door close in your face.


Hi, to find out how I feel on a number of issues you can check out my blog http://johnnyoops.blogspot.com or visit my Facebook group at http://groups.to/johnnysvirtualrealityworld

Stimulus or No Stimulus

What's the sense in having a stimulus program if we don't solve the housing problem first?