Mailman praised for not delivering junk

How much of your precious time and effort has been squandered going to the mailbox only to find another pile of junk mail and transporting it to the trash can? How much more have you spent on garbage bags just to handle it all?

Sure, it's fun to watch Super Shopper mailings burn, but you'd rather not have to deal with them at all. Junk mail wastes paper and clutters living spaces.

Folks in one North Carolina community are praising the local mail carrier because he refused to deliver junk mail - for 7 years! (I'm lifting my blackballing of the L.A. Times again.) For one thing, nobody wanted to get junk mail. For another, the amount of it was aggravating the mailman's heart trouble and diabetes. Instead of delivering the bulk mail, he buried it in his yard.

Not one person complained about his refusal to deliver junk mail. In fact he was hailed as a hero.

But the Postal Service isn't cheering - even though the Postal Service probably loses money on junk mail (forcing the cost of stamps for real mail to keep increasing exponentially). Nor is the Direct Marketing Association, because they think they have a "right" to fill your mailbox with unsolicited ads.

And the mailman was prosecuted for not delivering all the bulk mail. He avoided prison time, however. Instead he only received 3 years of probation, a $3,000 fine, and 500 hours of community service after compliments by locals poured in.

Sounds to me like he's a damn good candidate for Postmaster General.

(Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-junk-mail22-2008nov22,0,42692.story)