Nevertheless, a writer for a defense and foreign affairs think tank portrayed the exploits of the 40 riders as a prop to suggest there are others out there like them just waiting to fill in for the "troubled" and "mismanaged" U.S. Postal Service.

To that I say: Hold your horses! The Postal Service has recently finished its second fiscal year comfortably in the black, overall mail volumes are up, expenses for the past three years have remained relatively constant, and we haven't increased rates since 2002. I'd say that's not bad by anyone's measure.

But once you get past the storytelling, you find writer Sam Ryan's objective is to see the delivery of First-Class Mail taken away from the Postal Service and handed over to private sector companies. That would require a change in the law and, I may be wrong, but I've not detected much enthusiasm for that idea in Congress.

Maybe that's because there's a realization that private sector companies would cherry-pick the more lucrative routes, abandoning those addresses that are too rural, too hard to get to and not profitable. It was this very behavior that prompted Congress to bring the old Post Office Department into the package delivery business in 1913.

What the Congress sought then and what I think it wants to maintain now is the principle of equality in delivery and price across the country.

And, I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but the private sector example Ryan used to make his point, the Pony Express, failed after only 15 months in business, succumbing to the competition of the telegraph. On the other hand, the Postal Service has survived the telegraph, the telephone, the fax, the Internet, and wireless technology. Why? Because through thick and thin, and over 225 years, the Postal Service has continued to transform itself to stay ahead of the ever-changing technological landscape and has gotten the job done.

And that's true today, too, thanks to the dedication of postal employees across the country. The proof is in our service scores, which are at historic highs.

Lastly, Mr. Ryan recalls a historic milestone in the short history of the Pony Express recounting that on April 7, 1860, "a rider on horseback arrived at the relay station now marked by a monument in (Salt Lake's) Temple Square." Well, anyone in Salt Lake City can tell you that's not so.

The Pony Express monument is a block and a half away, right in front of the Tribune Building, not in Temple Square. But I'm not surprised by this error. I've read Mr. Ryan's commentaries before and he's always a little loose with the facts.

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Azeezaly S. Jaffer is vice president for public affairs and communications at the United States Postal Service.