Arkansas could lose 179, or 35 percent, of its post offices if the U.S. Postal Service is allowed to follow through on a plan to close 3,653 mostly rural offices across the country. Arkansans are fighting to save what many consider the center of their community, and Jared Soares of Equal Voice traveled to some of those places to meet the people who will be affected and produced a photo diary.
Soares reports families have lived in these Arkansas communities for generations and because they've lost much of what sustained their communities in the past, including schools, banks and stores, most consider the post office concrete evidence that their community exists. "Although they might just be a building and a ZIP Code to decision-makers in far-away cities, to rural communities, their post offices are a matter of their very identity, and evidence that their community counts," he writes. To read his account and see his pictures, click here.
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