As one motivational speaker said “at the end of life there are those who wish they did, and those that are glad they did.”

Down here on Trench Street the “occupy together” hand signals for speaking and feeling are clear. The raised hand signifies “want to talk” and the raised arm with a closed fist symbolizes “oppose.” Our top organizational and labor leaders have a lot of tough choices and series of hard calls to make leaving no doubt that the grappling issues will result in solutions that will significantly impact the livelihood of all postal workers and our customers. Inner circle bosses have a mandate, obligation, and mission to maintain the solidarity of the 99% when they speak truth to power.

The fight for jobs and justice continues and all postal employees need to get involved at a minimum by contacting their elected officials to support the legislation that supports us. It gets no easier than signing up to be an e-activist, but many coworkers don’t want to get involved for whatever personal reasons until something they value (their paycheck) is gone with the stroke of a legislative pen. And you know they will be the first to “scream bloody murder.” Our founding fathers taught us many years ago that politics is much too important to be left to our politicians. Occupied citizens are the real politicians.

There are so many employees hanging out waiting for an incentive to leave and at the same time many of them lack the motivation to help those who choose to stay. Would you still lollygag if there were no union agreement? What about if there were no no-layoff clause? Obviously postal employees of the past have endured so much in order for us to have the conditions of today and many on the current rolls won’t do the simple things required to get the attention of our political elected leaders.

In mocking the intensity of one civil rights leader I would paraphrase that nobody is dousing us with high pressure fire-hoses, there are no dogs brought to the workplace to bite our buttocks, no one spraying mace at us, we are not being physically beat down, and yet many of us are too tired, lazy, ignorant or self-centered to stay in tune with the issues and heed the advice of our labor, management, or association leaders engaged in the good fight to keep our agency troubles in front of the decision makers.

If it weren’t for employees, being a leader would probably be fun (laugh out loud.) If there are 500,000 complaining whiny individuals Moses is going to ask for divine intervention to “let all our people go.” Some postal team members might want to stop flicking rubber and stand up with the orderly, peaceful, and nonviolent movement that will create the climate, and environment to positively enrage our nation’s leaders. Stop hating on meaningful good decisions, bad decisions, or the fact that decisions are being made while you remain disengaged on the sidelines.

I predict that this postal crisis won’t end until sometime after the 2012 presidential election as public and private temperament warms up to what might be considered a noisy dismantling of universal-service. If you look up universal service in the dictionary you’ll see a picture of a mailman (just kidding.) The people who need to make the tough decisions as a group are probably more worried about their political health than the pending post office implosion (?) There is so much buzz about a variety of subjects like facility closings, insolvency, consolidations, rightsizing, labor costs, work hour reductions, competition, and the future.

Those of us without the advantage of the great big picture can only wonder with uncertainty, what’s next? Will it be best for the organization? The greatest challenges for postal leaders will be in technology while expecting everything to change. We already know that the digital age of internet and social media requires vigilance and a constant discussion about what we must do to provide or add value to this postal service.

Let me button this up by saying this is a great place for a young Eagle to land. Who or whatever got us into this financial mess probably won’t be the representative(s) that gets us out. Until there is a consensus outcome we have to keep pressure on the powers that be to “help us, care for us, and not manipulate us.” We will do this by having an “overriding commitment” to the democratic process of the United States. Occupy those thoughts to help “Save America’s Postal Service.”

Ronald Williams, Jr.