203 “He wanted to slaughter us all,” Bigler would later say: Tim Talley, “Survivors Recall 1st ‘Postal’ Massacre,” Associated Press, August 19, 2006.
204 the Edmond Post Office chose Sherrill over 22 other applicants because he was a veteran: Ed Kelley, “Killer Quit City Post Office to Avoid Being Fired,” Newsweek, February 20, 1987.
204 “At 40,000 post offices across the United States, our flag flies at half staff,” Tisch said: “Oklahoma Town Conducts Memorial for Victims,” Associated Press, August 25, 1986.
204 “To those who understand what he went through as a carrier. No one will ever know how far he was pushed to do what he did”: Ibid.
204 “These rules are set up to give them grounds for harassment,” said Robert McLaughlin, a clerk in Des Moines: “Right and Wrong Ways of the Postal Service,” United Press International, December 12, 1980.
205 “I’ve never forgotten this,” Frank says in a telephone interview from his home in Carmel, California: Author interview with Anthony Frank.
205 “He was an incredible spokesperson for the Postal Service,” says William Henderson, a regional manager in North Carolina at the time: Author interview with Henderson.
206 sold it to National Steel for $281 million in 1980: Steven Greenhouse, “Slim, Profitable National Steel,” New York Times, September 23, 1983.
206 “I think of myself as a professional manager,” he told Fortune: Colin Leinster, “Can This Man Really Deliver?” Fortune, August 14, 1989.
206 “People are hungry out in the field,” Frank said: Jacqueline Trescott, “The Man in the Postmaster’s Hot Seat,” Washington Post, December 18, 1989.
206 The following day, he pleaded guilty to accepting kickbacks from a lobbying firm trying to win a $250 million contract for optical character readers for a Texas company: “Wide Postal Probe Set in Wake of Fraud,” Associated Press, June 4, 1986.
207 “95 in 95!” Frank said: Author interview with Michael Coughlin.
208 “Vinnie was a piece of work,” Frank says admiringly: Author interview with Frank.
208 “Biller always acted like he was still in the 1930s and his bosses were bashing him in the head”: Author interview with Coughlin.
209 “I loved Garden City,” she says wistfully. “Everybody knew each other. It was wonderful”: Interview with Jaclyn Peon.
209 “They shuffled me away like an old piece of furniture”: Dana Priest and Judith Havemann, “U.S. Postal Service Mixes Technology with Antiquity,” Washington Post, December 24, 1989.
210 “He just stood there like a potted plant,” Biller scoffed: “Pushing the Envelope at the Post Office,” Businessweek, November 24, 1991.
210 “We did as good a job as we could in this calamity,” Frank says: Interview with Frank.
210 “Obviously, this is a matter of great importance to me,” he said: Michael Granberry, “Postal Chief Scolds Critics Who Link Job Stress, Killings,” Los Angeles Times, August 18, 1989.
211 “You punks are all the same,” he said: A Post Office Tragedy: The Shooting at Royal Oak, Report of the Committee on Post Office and Civil Service, House of Representatives, Investigation into the Events of the Shooting on Thursday, November 14, 1991, at the U.S. Post Office at Royal Oak, Michigan.
211 When a supervisor intervened, McIlvane told him, “Don’t fuck with me”: Ibid.
212 “He was a good letter carrier,” Withers says. “I worked right next to him”: Interview with Charlie Withers.
212 “Yeah, and I’ll be seeing you too,” McIlvane replied: A Post Office Tragedy.
213 “I’m not saying McIlvane is dangerous, but I don’t want anybody to get hurt,” Withers told him: Ibid.
213 “You better not turn your head or you will be dead—you fucking bitch,” he told one woman: Ibid.
213 “If I lose the arbitration it will make Edmond, Oklahoma, look like a tea party,” he told Paul Roznowski: Ibid.
214 “I think Mr. Harris came prepared to die,” said Joel Trella, chief of the Bergen County, New Jersey, police department: Robert Hanley, “4 Slain in 2 New Jersey Attacks and Former Postal Clerk Is Held,” New York Times, October 11, 1991.
214 “You know, McIlvane is going to lose and when he does, he’ll kill you too,” Carlisle told him: Charlie Withers, The Tainted Eagle: The Truth Behind the Tragedy (Self-published, 2009), 81.
215 “Is this because of the McIlvane thing?” Carlisle asked: Charlie Withers, The Tainted Eagle, 18.
216 “He’s trying to get in my door now!” Presilla told the dispatchers: A Post Office Tragedy.
216 “I’m referring,” he clarified, “to the chronic problems that had been reported concerning the management of the Royal Oak Facility”: Divisional/Regional Summary, Royal Oak Michigan Tragedy, November 14, 1991, U.S. Postal Service, 3.
217 “Let me be brutal,” he said: Bill Kole, “Shooting Aftermath: Postal Service to Review Backgrounds of All Workers,” Associated Press, November 15, 1991.
217 Frank called the ruling “dumb”: “Pushing the Envelope at the Post Office.”
217 The proportion of automatically processed letters was expected to reach 61 percent by the end of the year: Annual Report of the Postmaster General, Fiscal Year 1991, U.S. Postal Service, 19.
218 “The U.S. Postal Service has finally found a way to be responsive to the public,” wrote the Chicago Tribune: “A Young Elvis for the Ages,” Chicago Tribune, June 8, 1992.
218 “It was great,” he recalls: Author interview with Frank.
218 “When you mandate that—and the disability can be mental as well as physical—in a tiny, tiny minority of cases you’re going to have people slip through who are basically unbalanced people trained to kill”: Felicity Barringer, “Does Postal System Fuel Workers Anger?” New York Times, May 8, 1993.
219 In 1993, the St. Petersburg Times came up with the term “going postal”: Karl Vick, “Violence at Work Tied to Loss of Esteem,” St. Petersburg Times, December 17, 1993.
Chapter 11
221 It rained nearly every day in the Chiloé Archipelago off the coast of southern Chile where Gene Johnson served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in 1962: Mike Petriella, The Break Equation (Charleston, SC: Advantage, 2011), 80.
221 “I was the last political appointee because they switched to a quasi-public operation”: Author interview with Gene Johnson.
221 “It took six minutes a page to send through the system,” he says: Ibid.
221 In 1978, the USPS delivered 32 million Mailgrams, but that barely registered at an agency that transported 97 billion pieces of mail that year: Annual Report of the Postmaster General Fiscal 1978, U.S. Postal Service, 24.
222 a congressionally appointed commission . . . predicted that the USPS would lose 23 percent of its first-class mail by 1985: Report of the Commission on Postal Service, vol. 1, April 1977.
222 “Unless the Postal Service really makes a commitment, which it has not made, to electronic message transfer, they face a really bleak future,” he warned: “Postal Service Reform,” CQ Almanac 1977.
222 It was called Electronic Computer Originated Mail, or E-COM for short: Patricia Koza, “Computers Are Going into Mail Business,” United Press International, December 10, 1981.
222 “There was billions of billions of billions of pieces that . . . could be sent directly from the computer into the Postal Service . . . ,” Johnson says: Author interview with Johnson.
222 Postmaster General William Bolger said the USPS could charge 15 cents for these messages: “Postal Service Is Beginning Tests of Electronic Mail Transmission,” New York Times, November 22, 1978.
223 “I spent 20 days on the witness stand,” Johnson recalls: Author interview with Johnson.
224 “This is your PERSONAL INVITATION to ATTEND the GREATEST AUTOMOTIVE INVENTORY REDUCTION SALE in the HISTORY OF MANASSAS”: Michae
l Isikoff, “Critics Want to Stamp Out ‘E-COM’ Mail,” Washington Post, December 4, 1983.
224 “A lot of people blamed it on the postal service, but it was really the Postal Rate Commission that screwed it up,” says Johnson: Author interview with Johnson.
224 “Rightly or wrongly, I didn’t spend much time on electronic mail,” says former postmaster general Anthony Frank: Author interview with Frank.
225 “I’d rather give up my telephone than my e-mail,” wrote Newsday technology columnist Josh Quittner: “Computers in the ’90s: An Express Love Letter About E-Mail,” Newsday, April 5, 1994.
225 he offered early buyouts to 30,000 middle managers. However, the unions demanded the same buyout for their members, and in the end, 47,828 employees departed: Bill McAllister, “Can Marvin Runyon Deliver?” Washington Post, July 10, 1994.
225–26 “We needed a surgeon and we got Freddy Kruger,” said Vince Palladino, president of the National Association of Postal Supervisors: Ibid.
226 “It’s impossible for me to see that this is anything but a crass commercial campaign that takes away from the higher purpose of the stamp program,” said Kathleen Wunderley: Jeff Wilson, “Bugs Bunny, First Cartoon U.S. Postage Stamps, Gets Collectors Licking,” Associated Press, May 23, 1997.
226 “It was pretty wild,” Reisner recalls: Author interview with Robert Reisner.
226 “You know why we hired you, don’t you?”: Ibid.
227 “I don’t think we’re going to convince the net culture that we’re cool”: Stephen Lynch, “Postal Service Set to Make ‘Snailmail’ Cyber-Ready,” Orange County Register, April 23, 1996.
227 “It’s like a pay phone,” Reisner laments: Author interview with Reisner.
228 “I gave some speeches and talked about how the postal service has changed its technology many times”: Ibid.
228 “The core technology was ours. We bloody well invented it”: Author interview with Cathy Rogerson.
228 “This thing doesn’t need reinventing,” said Robert Setrakian, a USPS board member: Bill McAllister, “Time for Clinton to Put His Stamp on the Postal Service,” Washington Post, December 31, 1994.
228 “It is at a crossroads with no signpost,” he testified: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on the Postal Service of the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, House of Representatives, 1995.
229 America Online, now known as AOL, had 13 million members in 1998: Company press release, http://www.timewarner.com/newsroom/press-releases/1998/08/27/aol-surpasses-13-million-member-mark.
229 “Silicon Valley had a pretty strong lobby,” Reisner says: Author interview with Reisner.
230 “You’re telling me that we shouldn’t have spent $84 million trying to better understand a technology that is going to ultimately cannibalize our core products?” Reisner asks: Author interview with Reisner.
230 “He was very devoted”: Author interview with William Henderson.
231 His address at the White House was 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20500-0003. That would have made his e-mail [email protected]: “E-Mail Going Postal? USPS to Test Electronic Service,” Associated Press, August 1, 2000.
231 “The U.S. Postal Service won’t become the U.S. Portal Service,” his office said: Bob Woods, “Action on ‘.us’ Delayed, as Is NTIA Reauthorization,” Newsbytes, August 5, 1999.
231 “We don’t need a big, heavy, stifling competitor, subsidized by public funds, trying to compete in some of the most dynamic areas of our economy”: Frank James, “E-Commerce Giants Get Jittery over U.S. Postal Service,” Chicago Tribune, November 8, 2000.
231 “It was my belief that the monopoly was worthless,” he says: Author interview with Henderson.
232 Deutsche Post purchased 51 percent of DHL . . . (Two year later, Deutsche Post would spend $568 million for an additional 25 percent. . . .): “EU Approves Deutsche Post Buy,” Journal of Commerce, October 22, 2002.
232 “Well, we would have to ask our union friends,” she said: Author interview with Reisner.
232 “We’re putting this on the back burner,” Gensler said: Ibid.
232 “I mean, I couldn’t really remember [Clinton] ever calling me,” Henderson says: Author interview with Henderson.
232 “I had gone to the White House,” Henderson says. “I had talked to Congress. The customers weren’t receptive either. They just wanted us to deliver mail”: Ibid.
233 Potter told the board that two planes had hit the World Trade Center in New York: Author interview with Patrick Donahoe.
234 “It was Potter and Vince Sombrotto,” says George Gould, the NALC’s legislative director at the time: Author interview with Gould.
234 “I give Potter credit. He steered the institution through it”: Author interview with William Burrus.
234 For every piece of first-class mail that vanished, the USPS needed three junk items to make up the difference: “The End of Mail,” Bloomberg Businessweek, May 30, 2011, http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/magazine/content/11_23/b4231060885070.htm.
235 “I have one message today for the entire eBay community,” Potter said: Katie Hafner, “Postal Service Finds a Friend in the Internet,” New York Times, August 2, 2006.
235 the new law strictly limited the USPS’s mission to “the delivery of letters, printed matter, or mailable packages”: Kevin R. Kosar, “The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act: Overview and Issues for Congress,” Congressional Research Service, December 14, 2009.
236 “We’re planning for the future right now,” he said: Leonard, The End of Mail.
236 “I called Jack and said, ‘Is this a good thing?’”: William Henderson remembers. Author interview with Henderson.
236 Hallmark shuttered greeting card plants and shed employees: Jennifer Peltz and Sarah Skidmore, “Even in Holiday Cards, a Message of Tough Times,” Associated Press, December 19, 2008.
Chapter 12
237 “He’s a druggie,” one woman complained. “It’s outrageous that he’s on a stamp”: Author interview with Anna Dyer.
239 “Are you a fan of the Allman Brothers?”: Ibid.
240 “You ought to take the postal test,” he told Donahoe. “The pay is $4.76 an hour”: Author interview with Patrick Donahoe.
240 As he put it, he was “trying to get things organized in a world that’s not terribly organized”: Ibid.
240 “You had mail going all over the place for years!” Donahoe says: Ibid.
241 If we do no nothing, we face a future without the valuable services that the postal service provides,” Carper said: Leonard, “The End of Mail.”
242 “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine,” he joked: Helene Cooper, “Obama Offers Reassurance on Plan to Overhaul Health Care,” New York Times, August 11, 2009.
242 Now Obama remained silent, even though the White House quietly inserted language in its federal budget proposal absolving the USPS of all but $1.5 billion of that mandatory 2011 payment: Leonard, “The End of Mail.”
243 “This morning, there were 10 inches of new snow,” said Tanya Yerdon, the town supervisor: Author interview with Yerdon.
243 “We are adamantly opposed to it,” said Dana Grubb, president of the local historical society: Charles Malinchak, “Residents Deliver Message to Postal Service: Don’t Close Bethlehem Branch,” Morning Call, October 14, 2011.
243 “We’re not going to take this lying down,” said Philip Lack: David Namanny, “Orchard Post Office May Be Closed,” Mitchell County Press News, March 22, 2011.
244 “We ain’t started carrying no picket signs or throwing rocks yet,” he said. “Maybe in the future”: Angela Greiling Keane, “Revolt in Virginia Hollow Complicates Postal Service Survival,” Bloomberg News, October 13, 2011.
245 “Right now, 70% of Americans pay bills online,” Donahoe said: Denise Jewel Gee, “Postal Chief Loudly Booed on Plan
for 5-Day Delivery,” Buffalo News, August 15, 2012.
245 He lamented that the USPS was “insolvent,” that Congress was “deadlocked and dysfunctional . . . especially when it came to postal issues,” and that the White House was “like a deer frozen in the headlights”: Concluding Presentation of President Fredric V. Rolando on Behalf of the National Association of Letter Carriers, AFL-CIO, 2011 Negotiations.
245 “If we let nature take its course, we won’t be fighting five-day delivery,” Ronaldo warned: Ibid.
246 “The least-used delivery day is Tuesday, and mail builds up on Thursdays and Fridays,” he said: Ibid.
246 “You are the ones [who] for 200 years have gone to every home in America six days a week tying this country together, building communities, making sure that everybody stays in touch, not skimming the cream off the top”: Cheryl Makin, “Hundreds Rally to Keep 6 Days of Mail Delivery,” Asbury Park Press, March 25, 2013.
246 “Neither rain, nor snow, nor the postmaster general’s misguided plan will stay these supporters from protecting six-day delivery”: Derek Quizon, “Postal Workers Picket, Rally Near Capitol Against 5-Day Delivery,” News and Observer, March 24, 2013.
246 “If they open the door here for eliminating one day, we’re in trouble,” he said: Annie McCallum, “Postal Workers Protest End of Saturday Delivery,” Roanoke Times, March 24, 2013.
247 New Zealand announced it would move to three-day delivery in cities and five days in rural areas to avoid a financial crisis: Nick Perry, “New Zealand Approves 3 Days a Week Mail Service,” Associated Press, October 23, 2013.
247 Canada said it would end home delivery in urban areas over the coming five years: “Canada Post to Phase Out Urban Home Mail Delivery,” CBC News, December 11, 2013.
247 Australia Post asked its customers if they would be willing to pay the equivalent of $26 a year for five-day delivery: “Australia Post Plan ‘Harebrained’: Union,” News 9, January 21, 2014.
247 “At the end of this year, we will only have 30 post offices left in Norway,” said Norway Post’s chief executive officer Dag Mejdell: Author interview with Mejdell.
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