I can remember watching movies with stories behind the Iron Curtain or during World War II in occupied Europe and I was puzzled at the idea that the people had to carry "papers." As a kid that told me that we lived in a pretty great place. I used to hang around the post office even though Ted Burnett, a World War I veteran could be pretty cranky sometimes, espcially the time my brother and I lost a hard ball through the side window or the day my ink bottle came off inside my paper bag in the post office lobby. But there were so many other times when our post master or post mistress saved the day for us cashing a money order, giving me change or just exchanging the daily banter of greetings.

There are almost half as many people living in Saskatchewan now as there were in the days of Ted Burnett. Days when you could mail a letter as it was being put on the postal car of the passenger train or buy an illegal Irish Sweepstake ticket from the train's postal clerk. Yet here we are now being required to carry "papers."

We all need passports to visit the United States and ever since September 11 2001 there has been the oppression of creeping "security" on every part of our lives. Tests and studies have been showing repeatedly that airport security which seems to be the most obvious is not making air travel one little bit safer and every flying passenger is paying a special tax for security measures but that money is simply being taken and moved to general revenue.

It is not so much an imposition as it is a serious encroachment on us as a society. Who will benefit from these new rules at the post office? Is it going to prevent the post office from being the main supplier of trash for your household and your community. Will it encourage the post office to clean its icy sidewalk or be open a little more to accommodate the public's needs?

I wonder about Tisdale and other communities like this one with large populations of senior citizens. People who don't drive a car and have a drivers licence with an ugle picture on it, what will they do if they get a registered letter.

The most absurd of these rules is to renew your post office box. How could anyone use renewing a postal box in a fraudulent manner?

Yesterday I was talking about anger and frustration. I am frustrated with security and I am going consider what I can do to deal with that frustration.