Uh Folks, a Post Office Box is a valid address

This is one of those things that most people don’t think about.

If you live in a house, you always have a mailbox, Right?

Well, actually you’d be WRONG if you made that assumption.

There are places in this country where the USPS regulations prohibit a postman making deliveries to your home. Usually these places are located in mountainous regions where the angle of the roads, (also known as the grade) are too steep. The Postal Service, in those situations puts a post office nearby and directs all residents to rent a P.O. Box where their mail will be delivered.

This is done to prevent placing postal workers in a hazardous situation. For example when the roads are covered with ice and attempting to drive a heavy truck up a steep incline would more probably result in an accident.

So, when you ask for a mailing address and I give you my LEGAL mailing address that works for my DMV records, and my Passport and mortgage payments, and bank statements and utility bills, don’t you DARE tell me that I’ve entered into a web form, or given you verbally, an invalid address.

Corporate America, If that address is good enough for the Federal and State governments… its good enough for your paltry needs!

I say this primarily to high technology companies who sell software or services and simply want to make sure that they can put me on their junkmail lists.  Of course certain cell phone providers also fall into this same trap. They claim they’re trying to set up E-911 services and I can see that.

What I can’t abide is when their computers tell them that there is no such physical address and they won’t accept a P.O. Box either.

When I tell you I live at:

6969 Blow Me Circle

Fucking, IN 96969

Then your computer says that address doesn’t exist we’re at an impasse, my address and house exist, they can be found on a map.

Just because your computer says otherwise is nothing more than bad programming. The way around this of course, is to give a company the physical address of the Post Office itself. However in the E-911 situation that means the Fire or police departments will be directed to the Post Office 8 miles away if I dial 911.

If UPS and FedEx can find my address it’s obviously listed in a database SOMEWHERE! 

More and more I see a narrowing of thought and view, that is reflected in programming. I’m not sure why this is, but it’s getting old.

Unless people start reclaiming the right, dare I say it? Their God given right to think for themselves. I envision a day when people will have their faces buried so deep in their screens that they can be confined to cities and suburbs simply by having their GPS present an ancient message.

Here be Dragons