Posted on 12/03/2006 2:06:33 AM PST by Zakeet
NEW YORK (AP) It's the kind of holiday mail that might have been tossed aside, discarded like any other piece of junk mail: a special gift offer for a facial at a local spa.
Only the address on the letter no longer exists.
And the woman the letter is addressed to died more than five years ago in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
Hundreds of pieces of mail destined for the former World Trade Center still arrive every day at a post office facing ground zero the relics of the unfinished lives of Sept. 11 victims.
Telephone bills, insurance statements, wine club announcements, college alumni newsletters, even government checks populate the bundles of mail. Each one bears the ZIP code once reserved exclusively for the twin towers: 10048.
``I guess sooner or later they'll realize the towers aren't back up,'' said letter carrier Seprina Jones, who handles the trade center mail. ``I don't know when.''
Some of the nation's most recognizable companies and organizations, from retail chains to research hospitals, are among those sending the mail, but it is not completely clear why the letters keep getting sent.
(Excerpt) Read more at 1010wins.com ...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
rain, snow, sleet nothing stops the mail.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
It sounds like mail from a parallel universe where 9-11 never happened...
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
You would think it would be relatively easy for the Post Office to maintain a list of occupants, then forward mail to the living ones and forward to mail intended for the deceased to a relative. If government offices can't cooperate with each other in this simple way, how can they track other things?
With automation, they should also be able to easily generate change of address cards that go back to each sender.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
That part I understand. What I don't understand is why the USPS hasn't devised a better system.
I make my living working on projects like this. It's time consuming, but it's doable. What it takes is a will.
It's also very sad, of course, that victims' families have to deal with this kind of reminder. Not the sort of reminder I would expect many welcome.
Nothing stops junk mail. And a lot of people may not even know the letters they are sending are going to the WTC.
With automation, they should also be able to easily generate change of address cards that go back to each sender.
The post office did maintain such a list of names after the disaster. This story is about junk mail senders and those mail senders that never got the message, The post office can't do anything without a change of This is a sad story, but not a story of post office incompetence or inadequacy.
I see 2 or 3 addressed to the WTC every day. Usually as "200 Liberty Street, One World Financial Tower"
(Postal Worker)
If she ever donated to the Republican party , the mail may continue forever. My next donation will be in cash with no return address. I swear they spent more money asking me for more , than I sent to begin with.
Mailing lists are forever!
Where I work it's common to continue to get mail for people who have been gone 10 or 15 years. Especially from seminar providers.
The same goes for charities as well. If you send money to one charity, pretty soon you'll be getting solicitations from a dozen or more.
Over the last few years I began sending small contributions to several veterans organizations. Now hardly a day goes by that I don't get a mailing from one or more of them. Frequently they contain "gifts" like calendars, flags, lapen pins, pens, etc. There's no doubt that the cost of the mailings exceeds the value of my paltry contribution.
(I've received four pens from MADD even though I've never given them a dime.)
I've never been involved in the direct mail business, but apparently this strategy works, since they all use it.
This year I decided to give larger donations to just three organizations, and ignore the rest. But I'm sure the rest of them will keep sending me mailings for years to come.
I had a cousin who died and asked that in lieu of flowers a donation be sent to this religious organisation. Not thinking I sent them a check. You got it. Now I am on that list also. Next time it will be cash and no return address.
They should have already re-built the twin towers, just they way they were. Millions of people would have found inspiration in the reconstruction, myself included, and it would have been an excellent way to tell our enemies, "You may knock us down temporarily, but we'll be back bigger and better than ever."
Couldn't the post office just do a "Return to Sender" stamp???
Wrap it up and send it to Algore. Wasn't he in charge of airport security in the Clintoon Administration ?
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