The following is a perspective by postal commentator Gene Del Polito for Direct magazine. The views expressed are the author's.

After having sat on the sidelines during the past six years' debate over the need to change the legislative framework within which our postal system is operated, the Governors of the U.S. Postal Service finally have awakened to the reality that postal reform is desparately needed. There's a part of me that wonders "where have these people been," particularly since they, above all others, have been privy to the Postal Service's innermost secrets concerning its operational and fiscal performance. How could anyone with such a bird's eye seat of American things postal not have come to an earlier awareness that reform should be foremost on the nation's postal policy agenda?

Why, however, should anyone judge the postal Governors harshly, when those of us who have witnessed first-hand the many short-comings of today's postal system, and have contented ourselves with doing nothing. There's been a lot of talk about postal reform, but far too many of the "leaders" of the mailing community did very little to make reform a reality.

But, enough of the blame-laying, for there should be some comfort in knowing that the "awareness" of the need for reform has grown sufficiently for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Board of Governors to acknowledge that no amount of "cost-cutting" or "break-through productivity" (whatever the dickens that means) will get the Postal Service out of its current fiscal fix.

By now, it has dawned on the Governors that successive rounds of greater than inflation postal rate increases are going to worsen, not improve, the Postal Service's self-sustainability. Of course, mailers have been saying this for years, and largely have been dismissed as self-interested grousers. (Up...up...there I go again with the blame-laying....)

The task before all of us who have a stake in the viability of an affordable, reliable, universal mail delivery system is formidable. We now have a new Presidential Administration and a new Congress. With one or two exceptions, most in the Administration or the Congress know nothing more about postal than how to lick and stick a stamp. The level of their understanding will have to grow considerably more than that in a very short time, if they are to play the role that they need to play to lead our postal system from a sure fiscal demise.

And for those who style themselves as "leaders" within the postal community, well, this is the time to forget the styling and get on with the task of leading. There's been enough rhetoric to fill a library. Now's the time for sure action.