According to Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, the Postal Service will have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress acts to cover the $9.2 billion deficit expected at the end of the year.

How on earth did the Postal Service get in such a dire financial situation? Perhaps there are a number of reasons but the No. 1 reason is the fault of the Postal Service itself. For decades it has been making contractual agreements with its workers, including no layoff clauses, which steadily increased the post offices’ cost.

Labor (wages) represent 80 percent of the postal agencies expenses compared with 53 percent at UPS and only 32 percent at FedEx. Obviously this is the one big reason the Postal Service is in such a mess — one of its own making.

However, perhaps to mislead the American people, the Postal Service is trying to blame its problems on having too many post offices. Thus it proposes closing 3,653 small, rural post offices across America — as many as 65 of which will be in Mississippi.

The total savings, according to the Postal Services figures, would be a miniscule about one-third of one percent of its $67 billion budget.

Those of us who need our little post offices are adamantly opposed to sacrificing them in order to help the Postal Service get out of this irresponsible mess that it got itself into.

The Postal Service has stirred up a hornet’s nest and its going to take a long time to calm us hornets down.

We should all let our senators and representatives in Washington know how we feel.

Sen. Malcolm Mabry Jr.

Dublin, Miss.