While the president and his cozied-up postmaster general play with the fate and funding of the Postal Service, there’s some good news on the ground of post offices in Florida. A group of postal workers in Broward County took it upon themselves to break protocol in the name of protecting voting rights. Realizing they had stacks of ballots that wouldn’t be processed in time for an election deadline, the employees rushed to get it done by calling the Supervisor of Elections Office and requesting expedited delivery. The supervisor sent special couriers to multiple post offices to grab the ballots and speed them over, rescuing all 1,225 ballots.
Assaults on the USPS and voting rights will continue. Guaranteed. Like the sun rises and pizza is good. Like Publix supermarket soda is delicious. (If you’re in Florida, don’t take Publix for granted.) These are guarantees in life, axioms of American experience, but here’s what else is predictable: unnamed acts of overperformance by and underrecognition of laborers in every industry who do what’s right and routinely do it well (or try to), and almost always without headlines acknowledging them. Relentlessly hard work goes on every minute by workers across public and private sectors, and you know, or are yourself, one of them. Send your story of boostable work to recharge@motherjones.com for a shoutout. Postal workers to the front.
