Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Ep. 51 | Postmaster General or The Postal Service Board of Governors | Guests: Merril Hoge & Dr. Peter Cummings

Episode Date: December 1, 2018

Postmaster General or The Postal Service Board of Governors | Guests: Merril Hoge & Dr. Peter Cummings Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to Chewing the Fat on demand. If you've listened to me, whether it's on my old radio shows or this podcast Chewing the Fat, you know that I have always argued to be Postmaster General. I would love the Postmaster General badge if they get one. I would love the Postmaster General jacket if they get one. I mean, I want to The Postmaster General's here

I mean, how cool is that? I mean, you go to meet people the Postmaster General's here to see you, sir. I mean, you immediately command respect as Postmaster General. And I believe that I could

help the Postal Service do a lot better. A whole lot better. Now, the office of the Postmaster General is the executive head of the United States Postal Service. The office of Postmaster General was created in 1789. Now, it was not until the administration of Andrew Jackson that the Postmaster General was invited to sit on the president's cabinet. So from 1872 to 1971, he was the head of the post office department, which was an agency of the U.S. government in charge of the Postal Service. After July, 1971, the Postmaster General has been appointed by and serves under the governor of the United States Postal Service, which is a quasi-governmental agency.

that replaced the U.S. Post Office that same year. Okay, so wait. That still means that Postmaster General is good, right? I mean, look, we all have seen the stories about the Postal Service taking, you know, bribes and so that they could deliver cocaine and taking bribes and stealing mail and stealing mail that had pot in it. and postal workers that don't deliver all the mail. And they've found, you know, once in a while they find a postal worker that kept old mail that he or she never delivered in the basement of their home.

At one point, I think I remember a story where a postal worker was throwing mail out along the highway every so often so that they didn't have to deliver it and it would just be blowing along the highway is trash. There are a few problems. And there's a lot of other problems as well. One of the problems of I should have taken a picture. I'm so mad at myself for not taking a picture. I came home the other day and I made the turn into our neighborhood.

And there is a mail truck, which is an old Jeep. You know, it looks like it was in Vietnam. And on the opposite side of the street, going in the opposite direction, is an Amazon delivery van. Brand spankan new. Mercedes-Benz. Huge van, and there's the postal van. I mean, if you're the postal worker, you just want to drive into the Amazon van. And there's a number of things, you know, you see at the postal buildings that are still open,

but they have a back lot full of the blue mailboxes that nobody uses anymore. We've got to be able to find a way to make the Postal Service make some money. And I've got some ideas for them. I truly do. There's a number of things that I think we could do across America that would save us money and make us more money in the U.S. Postal Service. And I love the fact that the United States, the motto of the Postal Service, service really isn't a motto.

Okay, there's no official motto. Everybody thinks that it is. You know, they all think that neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. Now, that's chiseled in stone at the Postal Building in New York City. which is a really cool building, and I've been in it, and I've seen it, and I've seen where it's chiseled. And I've walked around the building, and I've inspected the building when I worked in New York right there on 8th Avenue. But it's just a saying.

And it was just a saying because of the firm that designed the New York Post Office, which opened Labor Day, 1914, one of the firm's architects was the son of a classic scholar and red Greek, and he selected the neither snow nor rain inscription, which he modified, because it was from a Greek saying, which was during the wars between the Greeks and the Persians in 500 to 449 BC, the Persians operate a system of mounted postal couriers who served with great fidelity.

That is amazing. And then in the Washington, D.C., postal building, which is now home of the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum, There is, inscripted is, it's called The Letter, a messenger of sympathy and love, servant of hearted friends, consoler of the lonely, bond of the scattered family, enlarger of the common life, carrier of news and knowledge, instrument of trade and industry, promoter of mutual acquaintance,

of peace and of goodwill among men and men, nations. Wow. Now this was called, the inscription is called the letter. And it was written by Dr. Charles W. Elliott, former president of Harvard University. President Woodrow Wilson, President Woodrow Wilson changed the text slightly before the inscription was carved in white granite at the post office. It doesn't say here what he changed. I'd be interesting to know what Woodrow Wilson changed. I can't seem to find exactly what he changed. Everybody talks about him changing it,

but I can't seem to find exactly what he changed. So I will look into it, though, but it doesn't look like that. I don't think they know. They know that he changed it because they sent it to him. He might not have changed it. They might have sent it to Woodrow, and he might, yeah, I changed it.

Here you go. Do you use that. But I do find it interesting in the one story talking about the Woodrow Wilson Change. Okay, so we know that the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum is the original D.C. building. Okay. But the post office, that was the post office until, that was built in 1914. Then there's a picture of a, in this story, there's a picture of a post office that was in D.C. until 1914. 86, but that post office is on Pennsylvania Avenue is now leased by the Trump Hotel.

You can't even read anything about the postal service without Trump being involved. So they really don't have a motto. And they, you know, I love them. And look, the Postal Service is still a viable option. We still get mail. We still need things shipped. No question, right? But my point was, is that I always wanted to be Postmaster General.

But you just heard that they appointed the governors, right? So I started thinking about, well, wait a minute. They appointed the governors. So the Board of Governors was established by the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970. Now, the board includes nine governors who are appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate. The nine governors then select the postmaster general, who becomes a member of the board, and those 10 select a deputy postmaster general who serves. on the board.

Now the Postmaster General serves at the pleasure of the governors for an indefinite term. The deputy postmaster general serves at the pleasure of the governors and the Postmaster General. So if the deputy screws up, the Postmaster General goes to the governors and say he's out. He's the one. Even if the postmaster general actually screwed up, it's going to be the deputy that takes the hit. Right?

And there's no question about that. Now, I love how you become a postmaster. All right. Now, you'd think that to become a postmaster, what would you need to do to become a postmaster? Let's see, what would you need to do to become a postmaster? Deliver the mail to the correct address in a time.

family fashion. But you have step one is you need to meet educational requirements. You must have a high school diploma or equivalent. College degree isn't required. And you those without post-secondary education can gain skills through on-the-job training programs. Yeah, like this is how you deliver the mail. Step 2. Work experience. Look, I can deliver the mail properly. Look, I can put it in the right slot.

Look, I can put it in the right basket to go to the right mail carrier. Step 3. On your way to becoming Postmaster General, or a, I should say, you'd be on your way to becoming a postmaster. You complete advanced postal service training. is that when you know how to deliver the mail you know how to sort the mail and you're greeting customers at the front desk at the post office saying hi welcome to the post office how may I help you today I don't know help me mail my package that's how you have advanced postal service training make sure that if you're working in the front lobby you make sure that there's extra envelopes if you're working at the front desk you make sure that there's extra envelopes if you're working at the front desk you make sure that the PO boxes are dusted off. If you're out back, you make sure that the mail gets sorted.

Now, I know that there's going to be a postal service worker. Worker listen to this and say, it's a lot harder than that, Jeff. Is it? Is it? Now, a hundred years ago, I remember the mailman used to

deliver mail in my neighborhood in Saginaw, Michigan, and he used to push this leather mail cart. and it had was like a satchel, big satchel bag over the middle, and it would deliver the mail, and he would push it up, and they would deliver, you know, the mailbox was up on the porch. In fact, that mailman used to be the neighborhood business man.

Because there were times when he would stop and, my mom would be playing the piano in the house, and he would stop and sing with her and sit with her and play the piano. And I have, oh, I can't tell that story. I have another post. just know that I actually have another post office postal worker story that at some point I'll be able to tell you, but I don't think I can tell you now. There might be some repercussions from some family. So the board of governors is where you need to be.

Okay. I mean, that's the job. You don't want to be the postmaster general. You want to be one of the governors. The governors are chosen to represent the public interest and cannot be representatives of special interests. Right. But you can take the post office by the helm then.

Right? I mean, look, the entire board determines dates on which new rates and classification adjustments become effective. They exercise the powers of the postal service, directs and controls its expenditures, reviews its practices, range planning. I'm telling you this is where I need to be. The chairman and the vice chairman organize and conduct the meetings. The governors, they have a full-time secretary. The secretary

is generally, not always, but generally responsible for coordinating the resources of the postal service. Really? Just make sure that I have a meeting at two o'clock tomorrow. The Board of Governors meets on a regular basis, usually in Washington, D.C., but, you know, they don't have to meet in D.C. They can meet around the country, where, you know, they might meet in a city where the members can see firsthand a Postal Service large mailers operation. Ooh. So, you know, if your post office is nice and clean and the sidewalks are swept and the employees have their shirts tucked in, board of governors are in town they might stop by now get this is why you need to be a governor all right originally governors of the postal service were appointed for terms of nine years nine years you get

appointed now in 1970 when the board was established the first nine appointments were staggered terms of one to nine years subsequent appointments were made for a full nine years or when vacancies occurred. For the remainder of the unexpired terms, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 changed the terms of the governors from nine years to seven years. However, each governor's term expires on December 8th of a given year

that can be removed for any cause, but they're in. If they don't be removed, seven years? Yeah, you got another seven. I'm going to re-up. That is outstanding. Now there's what, there's nine, not more than five of the nine may belong to the same political

party. I mean, who cares what political party there? They should not be political on this. You're running a post office for gosh sakes. It's not political, darn it. I want to be a board of governor now. I want to be on the board of governors for the Postal Service. I want to be a Postal Service

board of governor and if you're that there's no way they could make you not have a badge you get a badge for that you get a governor badge for that 100% you get a governor badge for that all right earlier this week I had an opportunity to talk

to Merrill Hodge and Dr. Peter Cummings about their latest book called Brainwashed the bad science behind CTE and the plot to destroy football. And the book truly is fascinating. Merrill and Dr. Cummings were just as fascinating. We're happy to have Merrill Hodge and Dr. Cummings,

authors of Brainwashed in studio. I'm glad that you were able to, you know, squeeze me in to your schedule. I know you talked to Pat today, you talked to Glenn today. Fascinating stuff that I heard you talk about. One of the things that I find most fascinating is that we people are just bombarded with 24-hour information, whether it be news or whatever stories, whatever you want to call it. And, you know, I'm a part of that.

But so so much of that information, it isn't fake. It just isn't the whole story. Correct. And so when we hear about people with brain disorders, CTE, cause. by football. And look, I'm, you know, my son played Division 1 and played in the NFL, and I was all for it. And, you know, there were times when, you know, everybody has had their bell rung and when we were kids jumping off of playing evil-kineval, jumping our bikes and smashing our heads into the gravel and doing all kinds of stupid stuff. We all did that. So now, do we all

have to worry that we're going to suffer from whatever CTE is supposed to cause? Well, you know, that's that's a loaded setup there. What I think, you know, to kind of help people when you talk about, you know, all the information that can influence us, with this particular subject, I think the thing could help people identify the legitimacy to the information they're getting is wording. Words are important and they're significant in this particular, this particular subject. If in the media you see linked or caused, you got to right now look at that particular article or that information with a massive amount of skepticism for this reason. There is those words linked or caused. None of those words are in the scientific literature, meaning concussions or this subconcussive

theory that is not even scientific yet. Okay. There is no concussions or subconcussions cause CTE. There is no scientific evidence of that or linked. No scientific evidence that. What the heck are we doing that? You won't find that in the literature. And so when people go, oh, you're denying CT?

No, we're not. We explain it in the book right out of the bat what it is and what neuropathologists, like, to my right, one of the great minds and why he became so important in this book is everybody's telling you that study brains and cut brains and our neuropathologists. And that's important. People that are trained to do it versus somebody. who wrote a paper on it, they are not doctors. Right.

And they need to, we need to use. Much of our action is being taken because of people who are not doctors. You're exactly right. But they say it's a pattern. We don't know what causes it and we don't know what it causes. We have cases where they played football, yes, had concussions yes. And we also have a bunch of cases. They never played football.

They never had a history. And we hear about those always, like always never. Only the ones in football. Only the ones. And so people think it is only football or sports related. And it's not even, there's so many cases where football and athletic events and sports are not even part of the lifestyle or the environment that that person has the pattern of CT from. And that became disturbing that all this literature, the science is screaming,

wait a minute, we don't know anything. Why are you printing things like that? Why are you saying things like that? And that's what became most disturbing because there's a lot of people who wrote the papers that say, caution, you can't use this to give any sense. of degree and they're in the media saying, oh, I've got to believe every player. The football player has this.

Well, you wrote it in science. I mean, it's interesting coming from you since I know that, you know, your history with concussions and seeing stars and being knocked out. In fact, it caused you to leave the game of my career. You know, the NFL, the game that, you know, so many people loved as you love to play. And because of that, you can't play it anymore. But it's more interesting. coming from you since, you know, you have a belief that it really did cause it, right?

Well, here's the difference. What happened to me was improper care, okay? So protocols, treatments, and therapies are one subject, okay? Let's keep them where they need to be. Okay. We are superior to where we were in 1994 in my career. No question. Okay. In protocols, how we handle head trauma, removing it.

Can we get better there? And is there some rural areas and other areas that aren't up to speed and taking action with the protocols we need, absolutely. So you don't just take a salt pill now and you're okay? You don't take that. We remove them. But then the treatments and therapies that parents need to be aware of that are available if their kids do have an accident playing evil can evil in the backyard,

jump trampoline, slipping in the shower like happened to my son the first time you ever got a concussion. It doesn't just happen in a sporting event. But if we know how to care for it, the treatments to help repair kids and adults to get them back to normalcy before they return to play. Those are the great scientific things that we have evidence of and that people don't know that much. That actually, I mean, that actually started in the NFL and with some of the programs that

you're dealing with now, right? I mean, I know that you with the Steelers and Chuck Knoll was one of the leading cutting edge men in this program. He's the one actually that inspired Dr. Maroon and Dr. Lovell to come. up with objective and subjective information, evaluations for players. So that's what 1991. Think about that. That's what that started in 1991. But really this book, though, is for families of youth people for 8 to 18. You know, the NFL obviously is part of my history. So I use that in here is explaining I've experienced everything there is to know, not just from a

player's perspective, but a parent perspective with my son and help people with all the information to get them up to speed on what are the true honest facts of the science, all the great exciting things about sports. So if your kids want to play contact sports, you have all the information to help you make a choice for your family. So Dr. Cummings, you as a board certified forensic neuropathologist. Sounds impressive. It does sound impressive.

It does sound impressive. It's like two brains and a fat guy here on the podcast. So what are some of the things that you found most impressive? once you started looking into this. Sure. You know, I think Marilis touched on this. The reason why we wrote this book is two dads. And we had a lot of the same questions that most parents in this country are having.

Because I banned football in my house. I didn't want my son to be exposed to it. And I loved football growing up. I just didn't watch it on Sundays anymore. Wow. I put him into soccer like you were talking about. Yeah, we talked earlier about that's my plan with my oldest son was to, you can play football later, but soccer now.

But he, you know, he didn't like it. But it was a sport. And, you know, he came home from a friend's house after playing some video games. And they played, I think it was Madden or something like this. And he comes home and he says, Dad, have you ever heard of this thing called football? And, you know, it became like a thing.

So I had to sit down and go through all of the literature. And admittedly, I was educated by the things I read in the news and heard on the news as much as any other parent. And I speak brain. Right. So I felt. I felt for that, and I was afraid of parent. When I start to look at the science, I found things like Merrill was talking about, that, you know, there's no scientific evidence that suggests that a concussion or multiple concussions, or even the severity of concussions are going to give you CTE.

There's no evidence to suggest that NFL football players have higher rates of suicide. In fact, they have a significantly lower fraction of the rate of suicide and homicide and arrest rates to the general population. I'm like, what is going on here? And then I turned to football and I talked to people at USA football, pop water, I said, well, even if there is a risk, let's just say the science isn't there. It's not good to hit your head.

What are you guys doing about it? We all know that it's not good to hit our heads. But, you know, we're resilient. You know, we're designed to be resilient. Sure. It's not good to hit your head, but we can do okay. And with football, I was amazed at how far the game had come since I played in the 70s and 80s.

It was a completely different sport. Rule-wise, contact-wise. And I got really proactive. I took all the coaching certification courses. I started coaching flag. I coached flag. I coached something called Flex Football, which is based out of here in Dallas,

that it's a hybrid of tackle and flag where they wear soft shell equipment and pull flags. We get to work on blocking and tackling techniques. So I went full in. And being that proactive and taking part in it, give me a lot of comfort because the fear that a lot of parents are feeling about their children, particularly playing football, is because they don't know. And it's not easy to find information other than what you're getting on a feed off your phone that's popping up on a headline.

It's almost as if they're trying to get rid of the game of football. Well, they've targeted it, and it makes, I'm going to explain that in a second. But one thing I want to add here, if somebody's listening to this, and they might say, well, what about post-concussion syndrome or symptoms that you have? Sure. That is a completely different thing. That's not CTE. It is something that could happen if you don't, if you're not properly cared for, if you're still having symptoms. But there are treatments for those things. Right. I mean, that's what we're talking about a little bit earlier is that we've come so far in the treatments and the process to go through once you experience some sort of head trauma. So there's ways to get. That's what the book we give you, resources, brainwashed book.com. Also. is the science papers are there for people to read because we want people to educate themselves.

It isn't our science papers versus their science papers. It's the science papers everybody's using. And when you read them, you won't see the word caused and linked in there so you can educate yourself. But there is resources to help people that might be going, you know, or having post-concussion symptoms from an accident of whatever magnitude it came from. And that's an important distinction because one of the things we really need to do with this dialogue, trying to attempt to have a dialogue around this issue is separating the concepts of CTE and concussion

because they're separate. And people say to me, are you worried about your son playing football? I'm worried about what? The risk. Risk of what? The risk of him getting CTE? Absolutely not.

He is not going to get CTE from playing football. Sure of that. Is he going to get a concussion? Maybe. Possible. He's in an environment that I think is very safe with the proper adult supervision. But he could go to the playground.

He could ride his butt. Absolutely. Am I worried about I'm getting concussion in life? Sure. But I'm just as worried about his ACL. What am I going to do when it happens? My oldest son was on his way to a promising NFL career. It was the knees and not the brain that ruined it.

So, I mean, there's a lot to worry about there as well. So brainwash.com. The book is fascinating. And I'm always amazed when it's so important that we get the truth out. Right. Because we are so bombarded with information that is, you know, like I said, it's not wrong. It's just not all the information. So as you progress through today here at Mercury Studios today, what's the one thing that nobody asked you that when you walk out of here, we should have talked about that.

What did you want to mention and get out there for people to know? Well, we may have Aside from that BYU football game this past weekend We can talk about that later We won't talk Cougar football right now We'll let it go Let's just let it go One of the things I think is really missing from this

And I want this to be asked a lot Is well how did football change Because there was a recent university Massachusetts Lowell poll That showed 60% of parents who were polled Don't know what youth football Particularly Pop Warner is doing to promote safety So 60% of parents don't know, then we have a lot of opportunity to fear for fear to develop and guide your decisions.

So you have to go and do a little bit of work to find out what the rules are. But how we limit contact, 25% of practice time can be contact. And we have different ways that we measure contact. We have no contact, which is drills against air. We have drills against bags. We have drills that are until the moment of contact, and it stops. drills through contact where nobody goes to ground but you will learn you will do the blocking technique or break the block technique or the tackling technique and then we have drills to ground

where we simulate game situation and so they're all graded on level of contact and we're only allowed to have so much contact during the week I'll tell you there's so little contact in my practice these are you know seven the sixth and seventh graders we're struggling just trying to get them to learn the plays right that's what we spend all our time on in the contact you know, happens so few and far between what we do because we're just trying to learn the offense. You know, I guess if there's one thing that you'd like people to do is, and we're not, I'm not trying, this book is not to change people's minds.

It's to open up their minds. Because oftentimes people will make a judgment or evaluation of the book and never read the book. So I'm like, at least just read the book. And you don't have to let your kids be involved in sports or contact sports or even football. I'm not telling you or saying you should change your mind. But wouldn't it be nice?

If you can't answer this, if you can't say this yes to this, if you can't say, yes, I've read the science papers. I know what the science says. And you've informed yourself of where we are with safety in all of sports. If you can't say you've done all of those things, say yes to them, then you're uninformed. And then you're making decisions based on fear or you're making decisions based on headlines that aren't true.

So don't you owe it to yourself and especially your kids, if you're going to rob them of an opportunity, especially if they're passionate about being involved in sports, and you're going to rob them of an opportunity when there's no scientific evidence to back what you see in the headline. So that's why Brainwashbook.com has all the science papers, read them. This book, we put them all together to help you, plus all the information that you need to know

if they're going to play sports or get involved. in sports to help guide you. And if they just happen to have an accident on a bike or a roller coaster, I mean, or they go to ride roller coasters, they jump off. They fall off a trampoline. They're in the backyard and they have an accident.

Their bike or wheeled sport, you can actually know what to do for them. So wouldn't it be better to know what we can do for our kids and how we care for our kids than to be scared to death? Standing over and them wondering what to do. You can say we can be active, proactive. We can take care of them, a dress, get them treatment and help.

to get them repaired and back to normal. Amen. Merrill Hodge and Dr. Peter Cummings, thank you so much. Brainwashed.com. Yeah, it's brainwashedbook.com. Brainwashedbook.com. Now, let's move on to Cougar football.

Cougars. Yeah. We can wrap it up. That's right.