To the Editor:

There are institutions that, while I don’t think about them much, I rely on them and I expect them to be there. The United States Postal Service is one of these institutions. Maybe I take them for granted. Not any longer. The current changes being made at the USPS have woken me up. Maybe I can wake up others.

I live in “greater La Conner” and the La Conner Weekly News doesn’t get here until Thursday. When Monday came and still no paper, I called. I was told others had called about late papers. The paper finally did arrive on Tuesday. The next issue arrived on Saturday. This week, it came on Friday.

Getting the La Conner Weekly News a few days late is not an emergency. Then I noticed that the prescription I order through the mail came late. Again, not an emergency (I did not run out of my medication) but there was a trend. I spoke with neighbors who also were noticing lag times with their mail.

When the news hit that the USPS had informed states that mail-in ballots may not be delivered in time to be counted in November’s election – for me, an emergency was declared. And then when the president of the United States said he opposes giving aid to the USPS because he wants to restrict how many people can vote by mail, I upgraded to a red alert emergency. While the USPS is important to me, voting and having my vote count is something I treasure and cannot tolerate losing without speaking out.

I have written and called my representatives in Congress. They are in recess now but with enough constituent pressure, they will return to Washington as they would for any other national emergency. Please join me in contacting your representatives. Public pressure does work. Tell them we cannot let anything interfere with our elections – with our democracy.

Neither the USPS nor voting is a partisan issue. We can be united in our support and unity is something our country can use more of right now.

Sandy Krot

Greater La Conner