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• Marshall Plan for Rural America?
• A Rural Perspective
• Who Will Miss Them?
• Education Case Study
• Who Plays?
• Existential Pete, Chapter One
• Existential Pete, Chapter Two
• Existential Pete, Chapter Three
• Perceptions of Rural America |
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Post Offices
By Michelle Reynolds
The Commission on the United States Postal Service held its final meeting last week in DC, and their recommendations – including further closings of small town post offices – do not surprise those of us in rural America. Post offices have been closing throughout the nation, and more closings are now expected.
More than a place to send and receive mail, rural post offices are gathering spots where people discuss local issues. A rural town with no post office is a town closed for business, and the fact that poverty rates in rural areas are 21 percent higher than in metropolitan areas suggests that more obstacles to economic development are the last thing rural America needs.
Post offices are important to the unique landscape of rural America and valuable to the hard working people that live there. They have an intrinsic value greater than short-term profits for the USPS.
Michelle Reynolds is program coordinator of the Center for Rural Strategies.
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