By Haleigh Ehmsen-With all this new technology, who takes the time to send a REAL letter or card to family or friends? That is the problem the post office is seeing during this economic crisis. With talk of closing down local distribution centers and one less day to send mail, this may not have many teenagers worried but it should does worry me. I am a senior at Mount Vernon High School and would say that I send about 2-3 letters a week. I have a friend who is studying abroad in Greece and another friend who is working in LA. While I do keep in touch with them via facebook, texting and e-mailing, the joy of receiving a letter in the mail is so much greater than a notification on my cell phone. I am afraid most people have forgotten what it feels like to receive a letter, a REAL one, not some spam saying that you’ve just won a million dollars or a scholarship from some college you’ve never heard of.

Most of us are too lazy to handwrite something and a letter may take several days to reach its recipient, but a letter is something you can keep forever and carry with you everywhere. “What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can’t reread a phone call.” said Liz Carpenter, a famous Washington DC reporter and feminist. You can’t reread a phone call, you can’t hold those facebook messages in your hands, the same feeling isn’t there. While I’m all for new technology- I love my BlackBerry- I think it is important not to forget what we’ve had all along. I truly believe that the world would be a better place if more people received REAL mail: care-packages, love letters, a post card from a friend, not only because it would bring happiness, but economically we would be able to keep existing jobs in the post office. There is true sentiment in the post office and I think that is a tradition that we should support and want to keep alive. So send a letter to someone you love today because I promise you, you will not only feel satisfied for supporting the post office but you’re also supporting a person. This whole world is made up of people and we can’t forget that; not Coach purses or those new Nikes. People are the most important.