Grumpa Joe's Place

Last week my doorbell rang. It was the mailman. He had a postage-due package from my new healthcare provider. I asked him why this particular package required $3.17 to receive. He showed me the metered stamp. It was a third class document, and third class cannot be forwarded to my new address. Hymmph, my healthcare provider considers his detailed book of benefits as third class, I’m in trouble.

The postage due was a benefit I never expected because I met a very interesting man. His name is Henry. Henry asked if I had read his letter to the editor published in last weeks free newspaper. I had not, in fact, I did not receive the paper. Before Henry left to continue delivering mail to his customer’s I learned a lot about him, his political views, his religion, and his family.

Henry came to America from Guatemala. He speaks excellent english and seems very well-educated. He told me he had been a merchant sailor for twelve years, and sailed to many ports around the Atlantic Ocean. He visited many countries. “When I arrived in America the very first time, I knew this is where I wanted live,” he said. “I am part Jewish and went Israel and I would never live there, nor Spain, or anywhere in Europe. I just knew America was my home. I love this country.”

He went on to explain that we have some very bad people coming into the country now, and we need to fix the borders. “I came in and applied legally, I waited, and I became a citizen, but these new people walk across the border and expect everything.” He was not happy with the situation. Then, he said something very surprising. When the current president came into office, Henry and his wife decided to migrate away from America because they do not approve of  Obama’s socialist transformation. They visited New Zealand with the idea of moving there. “It is a beautiful country, not like Australia, but we didn’t do our homework before we traveled there. We learned that New Zealand has a socialist medical system like the one coming to America, and we abandoned our plan to move.”

“Where will you go,” I asked.

“In a few years I will retire and return to Guatemala.”

Talk about  going full circle, Henry moved from Guatemala to have a happier life, which he found in America, and will return to the life he didn’t like in Guatemala just to get away from America turning socialist.

A few days went by and I found a copy of the Sun City West Independent that he promised to leave me. He circled his letter to the editor. In his letter he addressed the problem of the Post Office losing money. He urged fellow citizens to mail more letters instead of using e-mail and Facebook to communicate. He explained the reason for the P.O. losing money as follows

“But one of the Postal Service’s biggest problem has nothing to do with the mail. Its finances sank in fiscal year 2007, shortly after Congress passed the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. It required the postal Service to start pre-funding the health benefits of future retirees 50 years in advance at a rate of about $5.6 billion a year. No other agency or corporate entity is required to do this. Without this restriction, the USPS would be profitable.”

He is right, it doesn’t make sense to pass a law to make the USPS behave one way when every agency of government rides on the tax-payer without providing any service.

Henry’s complete letter is below.

Filed under: Characters I knew, Conservative, family, Government | Tagged: Guatemala, health care, Immigrant, Israel, New Zealand, Obama, Postal Service, socialist, Spain, USPS | 3 Comments »