Going To The Post Office This Morning

[gab13by13]

My grandson is an 11 year old teenager so I am mailing him 3 Buddhist books to read, he does like to read.

The reason for this post isn't about by grandson though. I am going to inform the Magat people who work at my rural Post Office that House Magats next month are going to take a vote. The vote is about having Postal workers help pay for tax breaks for billionaires. They have a proposal all written up to make Postal workers pay more into their retirement pension fund and depending on when they retire get less pension back, and less benefits back.

I will try to be polite but I will tell them they better call their oil drinking, methane breathing Rep. Glenn Thompson and ask him about this.

I would tell them to watch out for the leopard, but I doubt they would understand until it eats half their faces.

[Hope22]

1. My best to you on this important mission!

💗🙏🏼

[erronis]

2. I'm sure they'll see right through your veneer of politeness...

That's one group of people I don't want to have mad at me. Still get a few pieces of important mail via the USPS. Of course my SSI is direct deposit - until it isn't.

[gab13by13]

3. Reporting back from my mission

I told the nice Magat Post Office lady about House Magats voting next month to make her pay more into her retirement pension and then get less money and benefits back.

I told her that billionaires should thank her for paying for their tax cuts.

I told her to call Glenn Thompson.

I was right about her and the leopard, she just shrugged her shoulders, she will not be ready for the leopard.

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

4. I wonder if she is union.

Was she a window clerk?

[gab13by13]

6. She works in a small rural Post Office

She is a window clerk, or whatever else needs done inside the PO. She just doesn't deliver mail.

[modrepub]

5. My Rural Post Office Lady

Told me a weird story but I preface this with what I remember my post office friend tell me decades ago. The USPS’ pension fund had to be 100% funded so their budget always was weird.

Anyway, when I talked to the post office lady she told me that she is not considered full time not because of the number of hours a week but because she is “let go” for a few days at the end of the year the rehired at the start of the next. This means she’s a temporary worker without pension and using the Affordable Health Care Act system. It sounded weird but didn’t want to go into it further.

Knowing how Republican's work I wouldn’t be surprised at the shenanigan that go on in the USPS

[gab13by13]

8. Wow, how despicable.

I think they have to fund the pension over 100% if I remember right.

The new plan to screw the workers is based on years of service, people hired after 2014 are going to get really screwed. Now, this bill is written up but hasn't even come out of committee yet but they crunched the numbers. Magats plan on gutting billions of dollars over 10 years to give to billionaires.

[usonian]

7. How wonderful in many ways!

Your grandson is the solution to our world problems.

I was exploring what Buddhism means by justice.

Now, there are many aspects to justice, but one key aspect is social justice.

Thinking about this and reading some opinions, I concluded that the Buddhist notion of justice, boils down to equality, dignity of all, and fairness.

• Equality, because we are all equally human, while being wonderfully different. The notion of being different but equal is hard for many to grasp but essential to human harmony. Literally, you can’t have harmony with only one tone.

• Dignity of all, because the Buddha saw the inherent buddhahood in his arch-enemy Devadatta, who tried to kill him, and did not disparage him. This is so important that an entire chapter of the Lotus 🪷 Sutra is dedicated to it.

• Fairness, because The Buddha and Ananda saw a sick monk in the road who had been abandoned. They cared for him, and then instructed the monks to treat each other as they would treat him. Golden rule, and how many people “get” it?

[gab13by13]

10. I have read a lot of Buddhist books,

they are good at explaining things by using examples or stories.

2 Buddhist monks are walking alongside a muddy road and come upon a young girl with a pretty white dress on trying to figure out how to cross the road. One of the monks picks the girl up and carries her across the road. The 2 monks continue down the road for 2 miles when one of the monks stops and says to the other monk. You know we monks are not supposed to do that. The monk responds, I put that girl down 2 miles ago but you are still carrying her.

[Sympthsical]

9. It never crossed my mind

That I should go down to the post office and try to start shit with the people who work there.

Huh. There are levels to this political activism I had not considered before.

Going to a farmer's market in a bit. I bet I can get someone to throw down over yams. Will report back.

[gab13by13]

11. I absolutely was not rude with the lady.

I have known her through the PO for years. I did not lie to her or even ask how she voted.

[Sympthsical]

12. I don't think you know how this looks

And it's a big problem with being in a political bubble.

You went to a place of business - general government business at that. And from the get go, you determined that you should absolutely go up to customer service - people with difficult jobs to begin with - and dump your politics on them.

Now, I've worked for the government before. Social services. And I've also worked customer service jobs when I was younger. The last thing anyone doing that kind of work wants is someone coming in with their politics and trying to get some kind of comment or reaction out of them. In all of my jobs, I've been trained to keep my politics to myself. That includes social services and healthcare. It's to be as noncommittal as possible because we are working.

And people who purposefully violate that unspoken agreement and trying to get into it - again, while they are working - are usually considered rude just on account. Doesn't matter the tone. It's already rude as shit to engage in that way.

And then to come around and brag about it is the cherry on top of what is already a real bad look to regular people.

And I do want to emphasize regular people. Not partisans. Not political junkies. Not ideologues. Just average people trying to make it through the day. They hate this shit and they really don't appreciate when people manage it.

There's no win here. There's nothing accomplished. There's nothing moved. It was a field trip to the zoo of self-satisfaction.

[Sky Jewels]

13. That's a strange response.

She knows the workers and she was warning them about something that could have a huge impact on their ability to feed their families, etc. She didn't go there to "throw down."

[Sympthsical]

14. If a MAGA came to your job

And started throwing their political views at you while you're just trying to get through your work day, I guarantee this would be a different conversation.