Through Dorris’s Eyes:
On the year that the first African-American Woman Elected to Congress Joins Popular Black Heritage Stamp Series, U.S. Postal Service Honors Shirley Chisholm, the US Postal Services attempts to move the communities of the nation backward, instead of forward.
The continuous threats to close post offices located in minority neighborhood is evidence that the quality of life returns to a downward directions going back to days of the past, when African Americans neighborhoods were not provided the equal quality of service. When our nation’s service providers take one step forward then retrench to one step backward, the gains that were made are not sustainable nor do we provide access to the residents of the area.
The closing of the Southmore Post Office Station, 4110 Almeda Rd. in Houston, TX 77004 meets the needs of a growing community that is becoming a crossover again as the racial diversity increases. Yet, the predominate customer-base is African Americans and with your announcement of this closure, it become a critical matter of taking another resource from the community and the small business owners like myself.
For the past 30 years, my company and my family have relied upon the Southmore station for all my postal needs from letters to shipping to subscriptions to invoices and regular business-to-business services. This proposed closure places another strain on my small business which would require more time and fuel to get the same job accomplished that I have been doing for 30-years.
My request in this letter is to keep the Southmore Station open and find additional revenue sources that would make the location produce additional revenue and services to the community. This request joins many voices of which we have reported on as a community newspaper. It is unacceptable to merely have memories, we need services within the community that improves the quality of life for its residents.
The commemorative stamps should not become the only legacy to US Post Offices in African, poor and rural community. We the people still expect the delivery of service from the postal service. It is one of the first governmental entities that opened its public doors and grated African Americans the opportunity to move into the middle class with benefits and privileges.
America, we cannot go backward. Forward, it must be. It is essential to hear and listened to the voices of the residents by those we elect for real, not grandstanding with speeches and photo ops. We must have sound action on the floor of Congress so that we residents can get positive outcomes at home.
May God bless and I will see you next week.