Save The Post Office Rally In Towson: Pictures, Videos

TOWSON, MD — People in Towson say they are concerned changes to the U.S. Postal Service will impact everything from their employees to the upcoming election. Activists rallied around the post office on Chesapeake Avenue over the weekend as part of "Save Our Post Office Saturday."

The event was one of hundreds of demonstrations nationwide coordinated by MoveOn.org. Nearby rallies were held in Timonium and Baltimore. As residents turned out for the 11 a.m. protests, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Saturday to provide $25 billion to the USPS. Next it must go before the Senate.

"Of course the stumbling block is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell," said Marta Mills, who organized Towson's Save the Post Office rally as a member of Indivisible Towson.

Chanting things like: "Defund DeJoy" and "Hey hey, ho ho, DeJoy has got to go," more than 100 protesters participated in the rally around Chesapeake Avenue Saturday, Mills said.

Some attendees were upset by the overall slowdown of mail service, including a woman whose mother in her 90s was unable to get her disability checks and medication, Mills said.

Victoria Vestrich, one of the administrators of Indivisible Towson, said changes in the postal service were impacting her on both professional and personal levels.

"I'm not a Gen Y or Gen Z person doing all my banking online — I do a blend. I'm a creature of habit. We pay our mortgage and everything by check," said Vestrich, who owns a small consulting engineering firm with her husband.

"We send paychecks to our employees," Vestrich said. "We worry about our employees working from home" not getting their checks.

One of her payments from a vendor took a while to clear, said Vestrich, adding: "It would be easy for a company to just tack on fees. So many millions of Americans are already precarious and to delay any kind of payment is unconscionable. That's why you're getting such an outcry."

Activists in Towson and around the country called for the removal of Louis DeJoy as postmaster general after they said he made changes like removing high-volume letter sorters and blue collection boxes.

DeJoy rolled back the changes last week, stating he wanted to avoid "even the appearance of any impact on election mail."

During a hearing before the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee Monday morning, DeJoy said he was not responsible for the changes in the first place but assured lawmakers the election mail would be prioritized.

The nation's ballots would be "delivered securely and on time," DeJoy said.

Several politicians have accused the postmaster general, a Trump appointee, of helping the president with efforts to stall mail-in voting, and Trump has said he opposes funding that would allow for more ballots to be cast by mail.

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh has joined his counterparts in other states in filing a lawsuit to stop what critics have called the Trump administration's attempted teardown of the U.S. Postal Service ahead of mail-in voting for the presidential election.

After testimony Friday by DeJoy before a Senate oversight committee, congressional leaders in Maryland said they did not have confidence in his leadership.

Congressman John Sarbanes said the postmaster was "evasive" in his testimony, and he hoped lawmakers would be able to hold him accountable for transparency with legislation.

Congressman Kweisi Mfume called out the postmaster for "audacity" in what he saw as overreach.

"People are justifiably outraged at the delay in receiving their mail and the audacity it takes to tamper with the US Mail for political gain," Mfume said in a statement to Patch over the weekend.

"I am committed to demanding transparency and accountability from the new leadership at the Postal Service," Mfume said. "All roads lead to Election Day, November 3rd."

Grassroots organization Indivisible Towson and MoveOn.org were both involved in organizing the protest in Towson along with the NAACP and the Working Families Party.

• Towson Rallies Around Post Office As Part Of National Protest
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