We love the Post Office, but it's doing us wrong

By now y'all have probably heard about the nefarious plot by our Postal Service to raise rates for periodicals through a deal with Time-Warner. Here at Fringe, our thoughts usually run more to web stats than stamps. But the new rates are going to have a serious effect on our literary sisters, small print journals. This isn't just a matter of a few cents an issue; it's a crisis for small presses--and for the principles of free speech itself. The Postal Service is one of my favorite things about America, but right now it has me so mad I'd pontificate to a mailbox.

Some folks say we'll soon live in an online-only literary world, but we all know they are wrong. We need the dual forces of print and online. They're like Superwoman and Supergirl. Like Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Like ketchup and mustard, whiskey and ginger ale, peas and honey.
I need both the leisurely, tactile pleasure of print journals and the quick fix of online journals that can deliver a hot new poem any time I want one. And I don't think I'm alone on this one.

So what's a gal or guy to do? Well, first, you might scrape together your spare change and renew a print journal subscription or two. Who knows--your puny little subscription could be the difference between life and death for a journal. Or you might sit down on your lunch break and write a letter. Perhaps if the P.O. got a bit more business, it would be less tempted to sell its soul to corporate America. And most importantly, sign on to the petition at Free Press, and let our friends at the P.O. know how you feel. The window for public comment was ridiculously small, but maybe it's not too late to raise a ruckus.