Susan Alexander - The Rant

Susan’s Rant – November 2005

Postal

My freelance job during the day has me giving presentations at health fairs at federal government locations around New York City until the beginning of December. Last week, the health fairs were located at the United States Post Office main headquarters in Manhattan and the Bronx.

Two days at the Manhattan post office headquarters was a unique experience. My colleague, who has worked these fairs for years, and I meet early morning in the lobby. I am about to get into the first elevator that opens and she stops me.

“Don’t get on the elevators with the padding. That is where they transport asbestos. By the way, this is the post office that had the anthrax scare.” My colleague said.

Great, I thought, now I can speak with hundreds of postal employees who have either been in the asbestos elevator or exposed to anthrax. Most of the employees were very cool but there were some who looked like abused housewives and those where just the men. The health care company I represented brought dental floss as a promotional item/giveaway. I learned quickly to make sure the postal workers had teeth before I gave them the floss.

To end the week I was at the post office headquarters in the Bronx. Smaller facility so the event was in a small room with no windows or ventilation. The advantage of the smaller location is that people were more relaxed and liked to talk.

“This is the post office that Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, worked. Seemed like a normal guy. He would walk the girls he worked with to their cars late at night.” The postal employee for life said.

My postal buddy also told me that Berkowitz is up for parole this year and has his own website that talks about his conversion to Christianity, http://www.forgivenforlife.com/.

Going postal can be an informative and non-violent experience.

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