Late-Night Wavelengths and Saving the USPS

On Wednesday night of last week I tried to go to bed early. And failed. Tom is in Oklahoma this month for training, and it seems like I never sleep as well when he's gone. So I got up and took my usual post in front of the computer. I had just posted about the post office's so-called fiscal crisis, and I was feeling agitated. So I went snooping around the interwebs looking for more info. I found a bunch and added that to the earlier blog post. I did so primarily because I wanted Tom to read the stuff I was finding, and he checks the blog fairly regularly when he's away (when I don't read the posts to him out loud over the phone, that is).

Meantime, Facebook imported the blog post to the FB Worley Dervish page. (I'd love it if you'd go there and click "Like." Thanks!) My friend Luz, who lives on the west coast and so wasn't up quite as late as I, read the imported post on Facebook. I hope she won't mind if I quote her here: "It is horrible what they are trying to do with the postal service! we can not let that happen!!! privatizing the postal service would be really bad!" I allowed as how "if the postal workers are screwed, the whole country is screwed. Deeply, deeply screwed." Luz replied: "Oh God! we need to make a lot of noise about this. . . . What else can we do Mary?" A most excellent question! So because of my dear friend Luz's timely question, it occurred to me that we should put together a petition on Change.org if there wasn't one already. So I nosed around there, and I found one about saving all the post offices that are being closed. But that wasn't quite what I was after. So I started my own, and then put the link to the petition on that same blog post I'd already added a bunch of stuff to.

Now remember, Tom (the treehugger in the photo) is hundreds of miles away in Oklahoma. And I figured he was asleep and that I'd tell him about the petition the next day. After I plunked the link for the petition onto the blog post and put the widget on the right-hand column, I went back to Change.org to have another look. And whose name do you suppose I saw there? Remember, this is only minutes after I had created the petition. All those many miles away, Tom couldn't sleep either. He had already signed it and posted the first comment. He couldn't have done it any faster had we been talking on the phone while I created the petition. How's that for being on the same wavelength? I can't even begin to tell you how flabbergasted I was when I saw that Tom was the first person to sign the petition after me, and immediately after I'd created it. Nor can I begin to tell you how awesome it is to have a partner whose vision, determination, and talents complement my own so beautifully that it's almost magic.

Sooooooo. . . . If you haven't already signed the petition, please, please do so. We have collected 550 signatures in just four days. Our goal is 120,000—that may be a bit ambitious, but it's the same as the number of layoffs there will be at the USPS if Congress agrees to their request. After you've signed it, please share it, post it, repost it, and ask your friends and family to sign it. Make sure especially to share it with anyone you know who works at the USPS or who has a family member that does. There's a whole lot at stake for a lot of families, for a lot of good folks who love their small-town post offices, and for the whole dang U.S. economy. And many thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement!