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November 08, 2006
Are You For Real???
If you know me at all, and most of you do, unless you're Megan's friends, in which case I don't know you so well, you would know that it takes a lot to pi** me off. Crappy computers at work, traffic, commercials on radio and TV, Osama, my boss, rude and arrogant people can all make me angry enough to chew glass, but what I found out recently made my blood boil. (No, don't worry. It wasn't really boiling. I'm okay, but thanks for your concern anyway...)
Last night I was speaking with my friend who I will call "John", because that's his real name. John works for the United States Postal Service as a letter carrier.
No, that isn't John, but it accurately represents how the mail is/was/has been delivered to your home/office/dorm for many. many years. I suppose that not long after the engine and the assembly line were introduced, and the Pony Express was discontinued, your mail was delivered to you by a hard working postal employee in a venerable Jeep like this one:
Well, at some point in the middle to late 1980's, the USPS chose to go with another manufacturer of vehicles, specifically Ford. The Jeeps were replaced with the familiar postal vehicle that you see on the streets of your town everyday. They look like this:
During the conversation, John tells me that the vehicles were delivered with air conditioning. But not long after they arrived, the USPS HAD THE AIR CONDITIONERS REMOVED. "You're joking, right?" I said incredulously. "All of them? Here in North Carolina? "Nope. They were removed, all of them, all across the nation", he replied. "Okay, let me get this straight. In Death Valley, where temps can skyrocket during the day, they don't have A/C?" (The blood was beginning to percolate, at this point.) "Not a single air conditioner to be found, except in the offices of those who made that wonderful decision", says John. "Somewhere in Washington, D.C., no doubt!” I said. John says that all of the ductwork and other equipment is still on the trucks, they just removed the thing (whatever it is) that makes the air colder. John says that on hot days, the temps in his truck can be 10 to 15 degrees hotter inside as opposed to outside. He also says that since these trucks have little or no firewalls, the engines putting out heat only add to the oppressive temps.
So I got to thinking...When I was visiting family in Dallas, Texas, my Aunts explained that A/C in the west is not a luxury, but a necessity. Growing up in New York, I always felt the other way; that A/C was a luxury. (Of course that could have been as a result of having cheap parents, but I guess I shouldn't say anymore about that because one of them may be reading this...) Realistically, it just doesn't get as hot in the north (obviously) as it does in the south, and for that reason alone, these poor postal workers should have air conditioning.
But do not despair, gentle readers, because the USPS came up with a "solution". That solution was to install fans in the trucks. John says that the button that would have activated the air conditioner now starts a fan.
Are you feeling cooler already, or is your blood boiling?
Now let's face it...postal workers may not work up the world's sweatiest sweat putting mail in mailboxes, but I think that we can all agree that they work hard, and deserve to have comfortable working conditions, just like the fat cats in D.C.
I guess my question is, why am I only finding out about this now? Is this not a big deal? What if all of the police cars had no air conditioning? What if taxis had no A/C? What if trucks that carry our goods across this great land had no A/C, either for the driver or the goods being transported?
I don't know. It just made me mad, I guess.
See you tomorrow.
Posted by Jon at November 8, 2006 12:33 PM