Talk:Postmaster
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[edit] Each post office facility has a postmaster?
Is the manager of a processing & distribution center also known as a postmaster? 69.140.164.142 05:46, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
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Claude A. R. Kagan 20:13, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
Killer Mailbox
of 08534, USA
A "Killer mailbox" is a conventional mailbox as found independently of any building structure on a post along side a street or road, and which is legally intended for the deposit of mail by the United States Postal Service, [U.S.P.S.] and by no other person or entity . This mailbox is provided, paid for and installed by the owner of the place to which U.S. Mail is adressed. Such mail may be cards, letters, packages, advertising and other matter which has be placed in the custordy of the USPS to whom the cost of transmport and service has been paid by the sender.
Norrmally the mailbox is inert and is designed not to harm the owner or other persons or animals which may be in its proximity.
This mailbox becomes a "killer" in two ways. 1. Intentional and 2. unintentional; will discussed only the second type. The first type caused by the placing of some explosive or other dangerous thing, in the mailbox or in mail delivered to the mailbox is not the subject of this monolog.
The second way for the mailbox to become a killer is through the untintended secondary consequence of being placed in such location that the owner risks harm in the act of using it to send or to receive mail. The actual place where the mailbox is to be implanted is solely and uniquely delegated to the authority of the [postmaster] of the office which receives the mail for final delivery. The mail box could be placed on the same side of the street as the owner's residence, or it may be placed on the other side of the street. The former case offers minimal risk, and the latter the greater risk.
The decision to locate the mailbox on the far side of the street, thus placing the owner at risk of harm appears to be illogical until we consider the history of the road or street in question. This becomes more illogical if one observes that most of the mailboxes of other residenrts are on the same near side of the same street.
If you are fleet of foot you might not bother to ask. Likewise if the traffic is very light and the speed limit is low, you still might not ask. But if you re "short of wind as in memory strong" and the traffic is swift, namely 45 miles per hour [66 feet per second] and remember the old days you do ask.
The answer resides in history. In the old days the road was narrow, probably dirt or even crushed and oiled stone, Automobiloes were required to sound horns or fire rockets to alert the horses on the road of their coming. The only risk you might be faced with is being trampled by a herrd of cattle running down the road. The mail delivery was provided by the "[Ancient and Noble order of Mail deliverers]" either on horseback or on cariages and they delivered mail on both sides of the road. In this manner the "[Ancient Order]" acquired the moral and legal right of owning your mailbox and their income wasenhanced by a Christmas Time gift for good service. Now as time went on, cattle was mostly gone, road was blacktopped, two lanes, white and yellow lines, and fast "road rage driven, cell phone equipped drivers" claimed the road as their own and the ubiquitous mailbox gradually became a killer as residents on the other side of the rroad grew old and '[ shorter in wind as in memory strong]'. Thus the "killer Mailbox" evolved.
Municipal government [Hopewell Township] was sympathetic but were not able to convince the "PostMaster" to use authority to move the mailbox, so they did what they could. They place at some cost, to the taxpayers, traffic signs: "blind person" to no avail. If anything trraffic appeared to speeded up bertween the signs.
The postmaster was asked to visit, by the resident, but the response was an arrogant "we do not do private visitations." NJ state law stipulates that "blind persons" had absolute right of way in all roads in the state provided that they carried either a predominantly white walking cane or a metal one.
The only thing that happened was an increase of rear collisions or traffic swerving across the double yellow line in the center of the road to avoid the impaired resident trying to pick up mail.
This addendum to the original Killer Mailbox monologue results from the further inquiry as to other modes of killing that can be attributed to the killer mailbox. Conversation with [Mr. Daniel Boone], the President of the Penningrton, NJ, First Aid and Emergency Medical squad reveals that prompt and efficient delivery of emergency services may be drastically compromised when dispatch is to an adress identified by a Killer Mailbox. is simply because in the urgency of going to the scene careful search is for a mailbox on the side of the street which would be determined by whether the number was Odd or Even. Consequently a killer mailbox cannot be found and after a while the dispatched vehicle makes a U turn and tries to fin destination where the emergency is occurring. This may be several minutes and in an area distant from major hospitals, these few minutes can well be the difference between Life and Death. This situation does not impress the politically appointed Postmaster and consequently the Postmaster "stays the coruse." ...
Furthermore to complicate the issue the people at the post office said that once a mailbox had been designated as the propertty of the "[Ancient Order]" the mailbox could [never] be moved.
Through the kindness of the Public Electric Utility this resident obtained a supply of very light. very nice, and very visible eight foot long wands that the utility uses to warn people of the existence of guy wires on their poles.
Use of such a wand does help sometimes; some drivers when they see the wand across their lane are more willing to stop and allow the mail to be collected. Some don not stop and hit the wand but it is so light that it does get out of the way without breaking or causing damage to the vehicle.
Sometimes a driver signs a complaint of having been attacked, as if Don Quixote had switched to automobiles from windmills. This matter is in courut and still has to be adjudicated.
The mass of the public is unaware of this peculiar and very limited problem and consequently there is no pressure "[by the higher authority]" to get a logical not a historical solution.
And so the Killer Mailbox lives and ubiquitously causes harm unknlown to the overall population.
Maybe the only answer is to abandon this old fashioned way of communication, use email, credit cards, websites to pay bills. Abandon the spam that will accumulate in the mail box. I dont believe there is a postal regulation which requires owners to leave mail in the mailbox forever.
By that time the "[ancient order]" will have been "outsourced]" to be followed by the postoffice.
Claude A. R. Kagan September 30,2007
