Efforts to reform or privatize the United States Postal Service have been around for decades. But they’ve gained new traction under the Trump administration, which has openly mused about making big changes at an agency even older than the United States.
At first glance, some changes make a modicum of sense. Even as traditional mail has diminished in the internet age, the number of private delivery services, such as UPS, FedEx and Amazon, has proliferated. One of them, the argument goes, could deliver the mail more efficiently at lower cost to the taxpayer.
But that model breaks down in Louisiana’s rural communities like Branch, where Aleke Kanonu Jr. is anything but a faceless government bureaucrat.
For the people in Branch, Kanonu is not just a postal worker, he’s a part of the community.