Going WHAT?

I was listening to a stand up comedian the other day and in one of his bits he said something to the tune of how we should send postal workers into dangerous situations like Iraq and whatnot, because they would have the crazy violent ability to straighten everything out. I laughed and so did the audience, but what amazed me was that that joke is still funny. Can anybody remember the last time you heard somebody use the words, “Going Postal”? I mean actually said those words. Honestly, the last time I heard them used was in the movie One Night at McCool’s which was made in 2000. So it’s been six years. And it's probably been way longer since I heard an actual real person say it.

Does anybody remember how that phrase originated? Of course you do. If you were of a conscious age in the early nineties, you remember a string of incidents where disgruntled postal workers were coming into the post office and shooting up their co-workers. It was kind of funny in a sick way. The whole idea that delivering the mail was such a stressful job that it was causing people to freak out and snap.

Here’s the weird thing about it though. Although here and there throughout the past several decades there have been several random post office shootings, the phrase “Going Postal” was set off somewhere around 1993 because over the course of several months there happened to be a string of post office shootings all in a row. In fact, in May of that year there were two seperate post office shootings on the same day - one in California, one in Michigan. I honestly don’t remember how many shootings there were total that year. It was probably only 3 or 4, tops. Just enough for people to notice the pattern and start talking about it. But once it came into the limelight, and really, once people started using the term “Going Postal” the shootings stopped. I honestly cannot remember hearing about a single post office shooting since people started using “Going Postal” in everyday conversation. I guess the post office finally wised up and started treating their employees better.

So why the longevity of the term? Or at least why the continuing mentality that postal workers are unstable? In addition to the comedy routine I heard the other day, I can remember a scene in the 2001 movie The Mexican starring Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts where a side character makes the comment, “Guns don’t kill people… postal workers do.” What is it about that particular series of events in the early 90's that struck such a chord with us that after ten years it's still so funny? Honestly, even though I haven’t actually heard anybody use the term “Going Postal” in a long time, I don’t think it would strike me as odd or out of place if I did hear it. It’s that ingrained in my vocabulary from the past decade.

What about the next generation? Do teenagers know what “Going Postal” means? And if they do, do they know why it means that? I’d be curious to find out.