A point of entry for fixing the Postal Service

Good luck to Vermont’s congressional delegation in trying to improve the United States Postal Service (“Lawmakers urge fix for delivery problems,” Page A2, Feb. 20), but are they aware of the background of the present catastrophe?

Trump appointed Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General while he was feuding with the USPS. His choice of appointee was in line with the Republican Party’s intent to make the government so small that it can be drowned in the bathtub. The Democrats, operating under the illusion that comity still existed, approved the appointment. While the board is independent of the White House and Congress, its membership is based on politics. President Biden was unable to appoint enough to overcome the GOP instincts that have led to the deterioration.

There is, however, one Trump appointee who could change his mind, retired Marine aviator and Delta pilot Lee Moak, with a long record of service on boards dealing with major corporate and public interests (Air Line Pilots Association, International; FAA NextGen Advisory Committee, AFL-CIO Executive Council, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s special committee on aircraft certification process, and the FAA’s Drone Advisory Committee.

Moak’s appointment to the USPS was made much in the spirit of the appointment of Paul Bremer to be the “Viceroy of Iraq.” The Bush administration wanted a leader who was innocent of the situation. Had Bremer, a decent and well-meaning man, known more about the country, he would not have disbanded the police and the army and banned Baathists from seeking public office, all of which led to the sanguinary and expensive chaos of the next 15 years.

Moak, a Democrat whom the GOP and Trumpies found sufficiently congenial, is like Bremer in this situation. He could use encouragement to act in the good of the country. People can write him at: Lee Moak, Governor, United States Postal Service Board of Governors, 475 L’Enfant Plaza, Washington, DC, 20260-1000.

Chuck Gregory

Springfield, Vt.

Till we have faces

Many months ago I wondered who this guy William Wittik (Described in “Enough with this Guy,” Alice Morrison, Feb. 20) was, who wrote to the Forum so frequently, espousing ideas I disagreed with more often than not. So I looked him up and met him on a Saturday at the White River Junction Amtrak station, where he volunteers by providing information and helping passengers board the Vermonter. We then brown-bagged it in the shade of the old engine parked there, and I got to know a guy who shared the same kind of small-town upbringing as I did, spent five years learning to be an electrical engineer, but then heeded the call to become a minister. So it’s the Rev. Wittik.

His road to the pulpit was littered with obstacles great and small, including a near-fatal car crash that left him hospitalized and in rehab for months, but he eventually became the minister at the Assembly of God Church in Wilder. He told me, among other things, about the practice of deference — surrendering our liberty to do things not expressly prohibited by Scripture if others might be offended by our actions, and that the burden was always on the mature believer to make adjustments and set an example for others. Sounds like “Live and Let Live.” I found nothing about him that suggested the terms listed by Alice Morrison: “religious cultists,” “intolerant fanatics” or “bigots.” Nor any hint of smugness or arrogance. As for Wittik’s frequent letters? What does a minister do but preach? If the Forum editors will allow it, where’s the problem?

We’ve stayed in touch. Probably neither of us has changed his mind much about certain things, but William always has evidence for what he claims, and it doesn’t come from doubtful sources. I challenged him just yesterday on a point and he directed me to an NPR program I’d been unaware of. But best of all, I’ve learned once again that judging by words alone is not enough; you have to see the face. Not always reliable, but the best starting place to counteract one of our national maladies.

Jack Barrett

Lebanon

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