A March 31 letter blamed the U.S. Postal Service for slow mail and suggested it contributed to the closing of a greeting-card shop at Miller Hill Mall (Reader's View: "It's no wonder fewer are mailing cards").

The letter didn't say anything about a political party that seems bent on privatizing the postal system. All over the U.S., mail-processing facilities have closed. Now mail sent in Duluth to a Duluth address goes to the Twin Cities to be sorted and sent back to Duluth to be delivered. This is just one of the many things being done in an apparent attempt to get postal customers angry at the system so it will be easier to privatize it to the lowest bidder.

Postal workers are our friends and neighbors. They deliver mail in all kinds of weather, six days a week. They also look out for customers' mail when it builds up in their mailboxes and checks with neighbors so see if anything is wrong or if they are just away from home.

In my view, the closing of the card shop in the mall had more to do with the price of greeting cards ($6 or $7 for a card made in China), not slow mail service.

As for new postal vehicles mentioned in the letter, go down to 29th Avenue West and Michigan Street between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. and look at the vehicles coming out of the postal compound: Three out of five vehicles or so look like they should be in a salvage yard rather than on streets.

Let's all keep buying that Chinese-made stuff online, and in five years there won't be any department stores.

I've never been a postal worker. I'm just a concerned citizen.

David J. O'Connor

Duluth