The Town the Census Forgot

Special to FreeRepublic ^ | 10 April 2010 | John Armor (Congressman Billybob)

[Congressman Billybob]

This is more or less an open letter to Robert Groves, Director of the Census Bureau. Dear Bob.

Can I call you Bob? I feel I know you since you’ve been all over the TV explaining that the screw-ups that have occurred in your Bureau about operations and cost will all be resolved. Well. here’s another screw-up for you to put on your plate.

The Census has a rule that it will not mail Census forms to Post Office Box addresses. As a general rule, I understand and support that. There are probably more than a million people in the US who use P.O. Boxes to cheat on their spouses, run investment scams, sell useless or non-existent products on the Internet, etc. However, every rule has its exceptions.

We live in Highlands, North Carolina. The summertime population grows to about 25,000 every year. But the permanent residents are only about 3,000 Americans, plus about 500 Mexicans. Because we are a small town, the Post Office by its own rules does not deliver to anyone’s home, except a handful of folks who live so far out of town they qualify for RFD. We say they live 20 miles south of nowhere. RFD, in case you don’t know, stands for Rural Free Delivery.

After four weeks of seeing your cute but annoying ads for the Census, and not having a form sent to us, we found out by accident that we weren’t going to get any forms mailed to us because of your anti-Box rule. Now, missing 3,500 people doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.

However, there are other towns just like us. Maybe you should pull out your company phone book, and look up the number for the Postmaster General. Give him a call. Ask him how many small towns there are in the nation where almost no one gets their mail delivered except to the Post Office.

If there are 1,000 such towns, then you are missing 3.5 million people. That’s a significant number. Plus, our demographics are not the same as everyone else. Half of us are retired. The other half are young people with kids, trying to make do and survive. Our town has the demographics of Brazil.

Now, I know you have hired a whole bunch of people in localities across the nation. I know you’ve hired some locals in Highlands. They are supposed to have “special knowledge” of their areas. Haven’t any of them told their supervisors about the P.O. Box problem here, and elsewhere?

The alternative to mailing forms and getting them back by mail, is sending people out to every house. Again, local knowledge is your friend. Most of us live at the end of long, gravel roads. Ours, for instance, goes a half mile from the nearest paved road to our house. That’s a fur piece as we say. Only people who are lost, Jehovah’s Witnesses, workmen, UPS drivers, and personal friends make that trip.

Do you have a clue how much time and money will be wasted by your Bureau to visit every house in Highlands? And you’ll have to budget for multiple visits, because all of us drive into town every day to run errands and get our mail. (Remember, it comes to the Post Office.)

Do we have addresses? Why yes, we do. So, fire, police and ambulances can reach us in emergencies, all of us have actual street addresses. I’ll bet your local people could get those from the Emergency Network. Then, you could mail our forms to the Post Office, and cross reference the reported addresses with the Emergency list.

Just trying to help you run an efficient, effective Census. And, you could have added a question on the form whether the respondents were American citizens. I have my copy of the Constitution handy, and it says the legitimate purpose of the Census “enumeration” is for reallocating the seats in Congress, every ten years. I sort of had the impression that Members of Congress were only supposed to represent legal residents. (Except in California, and parts of a few other states.)

Cordially,

Your so-far uncounted fellow citizen at the end of a gravel road,

J. Armor, Esq.

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About the Author: John Armor practiced in the US Supreme Court for 33 years. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu His latest book, on Thomas Paine, will be published in September. www.TheseAreTheTimes.us

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[Congressman Billybob]

Conservatives know that gummint screws up every endeavor it attempts other than warfare and moon landings. Liberals believe against all eveidence that the gummint won't screw up, this time.

John / Billybob

[anonsquared]

You rock, Congressman Billybob!

[muskah]

We are in same situation. Received a note from postmaster yesterday to call 1-866-872-6868 AFTER April 12th and a form would be sent to our PO Box.

[ErnBatavia]

I hadn't realized you were in Highlands......we chanced upon that beautiful town last summer after "gemming" in Franklin.

Just today - after the get 'em returned deadline of April 1 - did we receive our questionnaire....and we have only a street address smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

[GeronL]

Oh wow. By government Post Office rules these small towns are forced to use PO boxes but the government Census does not do PO boxes.

hahahahahaha

Wow. Government efficiency.

[El Laton Caliente]

This makes one wonder... If they aren’t sent to a PO Box, what happens to all the rural censes forms? Rual routes are ALL box numbers.

[9YearLurker]

Meanwhile I just got my third copy of the census form in the mail today—despite having returned my first one promptly.

[GeronL]

lol

[anonsquared]

Next you should point out to them the Catch-22 of gun purchasing for those of us forced to use a PO Box. You have to show a drivers license with a street address to buy a gun. If you put down a street address when getting a drivers license and not just a PO Box, the new drivers license cannot be delivered and is returned to the DMV.

[Christian_Capitalist]

Conservatives know that gummint screws up every endeavor it attempts other than warfare and moon landings.

And for that matter -- Gummint has, at least on several tragic occasions, even screwed up fatally in those two endeavors, also.

[Cyber Liberty]

If you put down a street address when getting a drivers license and not just a PO Box, the new drivers license cannot be delivered and is returned to the DMV.

???

[Higgymonster]

Couldn’t get you yours, but to get to me, you have to drive 18 miles over a fairly memorable jeep trail, have high clearance, no fear of heights,and you can get to me in about an hour, nobody else lives out here. The census bureau guy delivered mine a couple weeks ago at 8am. Seeing two houses in the distance, occasionally used by the owner on weekends, ask if anybody lived over that way. I told him no, but there had been two guys living under an overhang in a rock formation for a couple weeks not far from there and he ask where he could leave theirs. Absolutely happened.

[OldMissileer]

The little village of about 350 people in rural Northern Michigan, where my parents were born and raised, uses PO Boxes exclusively.

Of course, they are predominantly Republican and all are white.

Will the Census workers canvas that village later this year or is it not to be enumerated since most rural areas are white enclaves now that blacks and other minorities have been herded into the cities and close suburbs?

[pillut48]

Why do I have a sneaky suspicion that the only people to be counted “officially” for the Census in this place will be the UNDOCUMENT ILLEGALS living there?? 500 more votes for Obama, wooot! >:-(

[anonsquared]

The Post Office only delivers to PO Boxes in rural areas.

In California when you get a drivers license at the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles), you then fill out your mailing address (PO Box) so it then can be delivered to you. The DMV prints your PO Box on your license (not your street address) so it can be delivered to you.

Walk into your local sporting goods store to buy a shotgun and they take one look at your drivers license (with PO Box listed) and they say they cannot sell to you as your license must have a street address on it.

Return to the DMV and apply using your street address and when it comes to the local Post Office, they send it back to the DMV saying they can only deliver to PO Boxes!

That’s as clear as I can make it.

[Irish Queen]

Sweet Hubby and I live in rural Northern Nevada. We use a private mail service in Carson City. Therefore, we will not be receiving a census form. I suspect that folks in our area using PO boxes or mailing services tend to be politically conservative.

[maine-iac7]

LOL - I used to live in Carmel-By-The-Sea, California.

They, too, have no delivery...all post office boxes.

Meanwhile, I'm now back home t’Maine...and have had TWO Census Form sent to me...as have everyone else I know here...

So, hmmm, large swaths of people get NO form and how many get two? Good way to skew the figures for gerrymandering/

[RC51]

You can give them a utility bill addressed to you if you have a PO box on your ID.

[smokingfrog]

The census doesn’t want to count a bunch of backwoods, redneck yahoos in the Carolinas.

[maine-iac7]

And he managed to find you away off in the hinterlands - hmmm. Sounds like you are a red pin on their "must be a red-necked, Bible clining, gun packing, white male, conservative - ergo: TERRORIST

We - and they - know that liberals are herd animals. they cling to city living - scared to death to be out in the country where it takes at least a modicum of self-sufficiency of both mind and body.

I keep clinging to this scenario: The big cities are located in the most vunerable locations - as to earth quakes, tzunamis, hurricanes. Take San Francisco, for ex. Even after the 1908 quake that flattened to city - they turned right around and rebuilt as if there would never be another quake there.

Now, I'm thinking, if God gets fed up enough, all He has to do is a little shake here, a hurricane there and a tsunami or 2 - and a lot of our problems are greatly watered down - especially NYC - where it is estimated that a wall of water from 60 - 150 ft would slam in the city if a volcano off the coast of Africa lets go...I remember seeing a documentary on this , and that island - which is really just a big volcano, is getting very unstable.

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-473330.html

So I'm thinking maybe God will have the last laugh...if he gets fed up enough.