Benjamin Franklin was the first Postmaster General...he must be turning over in his grave.
The Second Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin the first postmaster general in 1775. But it was an idea as old as Augustus Caesar (62 BCE-14 CE), who organized the service (cursus publicus) and his "service" workers were provided with light carriages (rhedae) pulled by fast horses. Ancient Rome, realized that good communication, fast and free, would make a good nation a greater nation.
The idea of a national communication service to pull a nation together, promote commerce, and freely spread new and information was as popular to ancient Romans as it is to American citizens today.
When I was in high school, I wanted to buy a new Mustang, to drive to college and so I found a job working at the Post Office located in downtown Fort Worth, right on the rail line. My job was to come in, stand on a 2 ft high platform, that had bags for mail and parcels, hung all around it. Each bag went to a different city, often on a different train or truck. The mail would be dumped in the center of the platform and my job was to redirect each box or package to the correct postal mail bag (thus to the correct train or truck). Although we were taught to be careful if the boxes said "Fragile" some of us became pretty adept at practicing "basketball shots" and hitting "baggers", from 10 or 15 ft away. I was a hard worker, doing extra courses in the day time, to get ahead in school, and working until midnight getting the mail sent out on the right train. I worked hard, and by the way, I bought and drove my new Mustang to college that year.
It was a good job, good pay for a kid and I worked hard at it. I was proud to be one of those "Neither rain nor snow...." guys determined to keep information and commerce going. Of course we knew that many people depended upon those boxes of mail for medicines, supplies, food, clothes, tools, all those things people need to survive.…
