History

That some of the soldiers who committed the massacre of Wounded Knee received the nation’s highest honor is an unspeakable outrage. That the injured soldiers who survived Captain Hasan’s killing spree at Ft. Hood cannot now receive Purple Hearts, shows that the the twisted rhetoric of war remains with us still.

Originally created by the Second Continental Congress in 1775, almost a year to the day before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the new United States Post Office was deemed so important to the fledgling nation that none other than Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first Post Master General. When the Constitution re-designed the national government in 1789, one of the first orders of business was empowering Congress to establish a new federal post office (Article I, Section 8, Clause 7). The Post Office was the preeminent government service and the nation’s communications infrastructure.  Timely delivery of mails was vital to commerce and enabled national expansion.  And in an era of smaller government, the Post Office accounted for upwards of half of all federal employees during parts of the 19th century. But beyond its economic importance, the United States Post Office has also played a role in the nation’s cultural life.  In many small towns throughout rural America, it was not uncommon once upon a time for the only structures on many a Main Street to be the local church and the local post office.  No wonder then that American culture abounds with references to the post office, ranging from the trope of carriers being plagued by overprotective dogs, to the office’s unofficial but iconic pledge that: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. This phrase, engraved at the James A. Farley Post Office building at 8th Avenue and 33rd Street in New York City, is a translation of Herodotus describing the Persian postal carriers from 2,500 years ago.