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Will It Be Money Well Spent?

(This article first appeared in the September/October 2006 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

It’s nice to see that two of the world’s richest men — Bill Gates and Warren Buffett — have come to realize that they have accumulated so much they now can give most of their fortunes away. Gates chairs the largest philanthropic foundation in the history of the world, and Buffett, who used to run the second-largest, recently announced that he would give the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation $30 billion.

“There is a class war going on in America, but the wealthy are definitely not among those suffering on the battleground.”

I’m sure that great offices will be built for the foundation, with beautiful grounds, priceless artworks, and lush offices. Huge salaries will be paid and grand galas will be attended. (While the Buffett contribution more or less doubles the size of the Gates charity, an organization that tracks such things notes that the foundation still will be responsible for less than 1 percent of all the charitable “giving” in the United States each year.)

As I think about this I can’t help but wonder how the lives of millions could have changed long before now had decent salaries, benefits, vacations, holidays, and other amenities been provided to the workers who mass produced the products for Gates’ Microsoft and the many companies that Buffett has financed through the years.

I wonder how the cities and communities in which these workers labored and lived would have been better off had those wages passed through multiple hands in purchases. I’m sure that the two wealthiest men in the world would still have had a few billion dollars each to struggle through life with.

Last year, 39 new billionaires were created in this great land of ours. Meanwhile, millions of Americans fell below the poverty line. Good news, though: Congress is acting to help. No — not by cutting the gas tax for all Americans, or by fashioning legislation that would mean reasonable levels of health care for the millions who currently go without it because it is too expensive.

Instead, with a deficit of almost $9 trillion staring it in the face, Congress is trying to cut the estate tax for, among other rich people, the 39 new billionaires. There is a class war going on in America, but the wealthy are definitely not among those suffering on the battleground.

Commemoration of a Tragedy

We recently were reminded of a number of notable postal-worker anniversaries. In mid-August, we celebrated “100 Years of Progress” in the postal-union movement at the 18th Biennial National Convention. This August also marked the 20th anniversary of the Edmond (OK) Post Office massacre: A part-time letter carrier with a history of work and other problems murdered 13 postal workers and then killed himself.

Many more were wounded physically and, of course, mentally. My apologies that this portion of my column may stir uneasy and unwanted memories to anyone in Edmond or in any other postal facility where a shooting has occurred, but I believe that to honor those who died, the lessons that were learned must never be forgotten.

In August 1986, I was the Oklahoma City Area Local APWU president, and Edmond was part of that local. I was driving to work that morning when the first reports came over the radio. I diverted immediately to Edmond, which was less than 20 miles from the local APWU office, and arrived well before the police entered the building — and the Edmond Police Department was situated next to the Edmond Post Office.

When I got there, police were counting gunshots and publicly describing the incident as a “hostage situation,” even though employees fleeing the building were telling everyone that someone was inside “shooting people.” As I cautiously neared the site, I came upon several employees sitting on a curb, clearly traumatized. One looked up and said, “They should have told us how to get out ... we didn’t know how to get out of the building.”

• Lesson 1 Make sure that you have a real evacuation plan that all employees know and understand. (GAO reports and Congressional investigations revealed problem with emergency exits not just in the Edmond Post Office, but in postal facilities nationwide.)
  
  
• Lesson 2 Make sure that emergency exits are not blocked with furniture or equipment, not even for a moment. (One hallway marked “Exit” in Edmond had been converted into a mini-office, complete with a desk chair and file cabinet.)
  
  
• Lesson 3 Make sure that as part of your local emergency action plan, local police know about and have access to your facility’s postal inspector’s galleries.
  
  
• Lesson 4 Nothing — repeat: Nothing — in the workplace and no management action can justify or explain the actions of a murderer such as the killer in Edmond 20 years ago. Often individuals who are capable of committing such acts are not readily identifiable; no psychological screening technique or state-of-the-art security system can stop someone who is that mentally sick.

One lesson that may or may not have been learned was that postal inspectors couldn’t seem to get beyond their own job descriptions. When all the shooting was over and only questions needed to be asked, they asked victims and other witnesses questions that by their very nature seemed to imply guilt or place blame. A little compassion on their part would have gone a long way back then, but they instead went by the book. Perhaps they were traumatized themselves and didn’t know any better...

Local management and members of Human Resources, on the other hand, tried very hard to help in Edmond that day and in the aftermath, and in and other difficult situations that I personally have been involved in.

Shortly after 13 postal workers were killed at the Edmond, OK, Post Office, colleagues gather for a memorial service. The slayings took place Aug. 20, 1986.

If you’ll permit me a Lesson 5 — a Personal Lesson — let me say that after investigating several of these incidents firsthand, I have to say that unless I could figure out a way to get inside a vault or similarly secure location, I would do my best to just get out of the building as fast as I could. Unlike in the movies — where you can count on the police to burst in with guns drawn — you may be entirely on your own when someone in a workplace near you snaps.

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