EAT KNAFEH. SAVE USPS. VOTE BY MAIL

My name is Fatmah Muhammad.

I’m the owner of Knafeh Queens, an award-winning bakery that relies on USPS, and an MPower Change member.

If you haven’t had Knafeh before, it’s a beloved, delicious, sweet and savory Palestinian dessert, perfect with any meal or for any occassion—but if Trump gets his way, you might have to wait a long, long while before you get to try my Knafeh for the first time.

As a Muslim I believe we are preparing for one of the most high-stakes elections in our lifetimes. It’s not who’s on the ballot, but what’s on it. The way I see it, the Muslim Ban, kids in cages, healthcare reform, Black lives, and immigrant rights are what we are really voting for.

We desperately need a well funded USPS and vote-by-mail in every state to ensure we won’t lose more than our prized postal service in 2020. Will you join me, other MPower members, and a national coalition to demand our Senate institute vote-by-mail in every state?

We’ve already won vote-by-mail in several states!

California. Delaware. Nevada. New Jersey. New York. North Dakota. Maryland all instituted vote-by-mail since our last viral petition with over half a million signers. We are winning, but we can’t stop until we get federal action to save USPS and mandate a free and fair election across the country.

States across the country, including my state of California, are preparing for an election in the midst of a global pandemic properly—by making vote-by-mail public and accessible through USPS.1

But how has Trump responded?

By naming a bigoted buddy and donor of his, with no USPS experience, as the new Postmaster General, suggesting that USPS start quadrupling the shipping costs it imposes on companies like mine2, and explicitly rejecting aid to USPS in a Covid-19 bail out package.3

The fact is this: Trump’s claim that the USPS is “in trouble” is fake news. His allies in Congress manufactured a political effort to mandate unreasonable employee spending in order to take down the USPS and possibly seize control of it or privatize it.4

There’s more than enough money to keep the USPS running strong indefinitely—and our elections might depend on just that.

Elections, my Muslim-owned family businesses, dessert—just about everything that could depend on USPS, depends on USPS right now.

Everything from providing baked goods to ensuring free and fair elections in 2020 relies on a strong, properly funded postal service.

Here’s my new favorite slogan: Eat Knafeh. Save USPS. Demand vote-by-mail—please join us to bring vote-by-mail to every state ahead of the general election.

I love USPS and so many people, like me, rely extensively on the United States Postal Service to thrive and provide services to others.

Speaking for me, I can say confidently that in the midst of Covid-19, USPS is the only way to sustain my business. Catering is canceled. Events are canceled. But delivery? Delivery is how I support my family.

USPS is a vital public service, one that all progressives should be proud of and protecting. (It’s even explicitly provided for in the U.S. Constitution).

USPS is vastly more affordable than using private shipping, which would make so many businesses impossible: the price difference, especially with a dense, heavy product like Knafeh, is massive. (I once tried shipping a pie with a well-known private shipping service—the same shipping that was affordable with USPS cost over $60, for a single pie).

Private shipping companies are massive corporations—and you don’t get the same sense that they care about people. But I know my mailman and post-office staff—and I know that without USPS, we would have never been able to take a Palestinian dessert, and ship it all over the United States, from NYC to the most rural towns, and across the pond to the UK.

People from every walk of life have had access to a key slice of my culture. Whether they’re South Asian, Jewish, Mexican-American, white, foodies, or total newbies who “don’t typically buy Muslim stuff,”—they’ve supported a Palestinian Muslim woman of color. We’ve even collected some fan-art from new Knafeh devotees.