Assault on a Queen

[Daveparts]

America has so many opinions, we all have our opinions. But some things should be beyond partisan politics. No member of Congress would stand on the floor and lobby against rebuilding the I-35 Bridge that is necessary to the city of Minneapolis. What if someone declared that the US capital building was unsafe due to its construction materials. Do we close the capital and hold congressional sessions in D.C. hotels.

Of course we would do everything possible to make the Capital building as safe as possible understanding it’s historical significance. Because our history is the story of who we are its cornerstone was laid by George Washington. Our Presidents are sworn in on it’s steps it represents who we are.

But we don’t all live in Washington but all of us in our home towns have monuments and local treasures that are maybe not as well known but in many ways even more personal. In Montgomery Al. Where I used to live we had Martin Luther Kings first church and the first White House of the confederacy and the Winter Building. Never heard of the Winter building have you ? In 1861 it contained the Western Union office and from there the orders were sent to fire on Fort Sumpter. Maybe its its not of huge historical significance but it is part of American history and was preserved.

In Chicago the water tower still stands the statue of liberty in New York Harbor and the Brooklyn bridge this is all part of our heritage. Cincinnati is one of America’s great river towns, before the interstate highways or even railroads our rivers were our highways. Mark Twain immortalized that river traffic in his books Life on the Mississippi and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The paddle wheeled steamboat is as much a part of our national identity as the cowboy or the log cabin.

The riverboat Delta Queen was built in San Francisco in 1926 it once passed through the Panama Canal on it’s way up to New Orleans. She travels the Ohio and Mississippi rivers with her steam calliope playing to the generations, a living museum of American history. She cruises the rivers carrying passengers on 3,5,7 and even 11day excursions on virtual trips back through time. To see America as it once was and as it is to stroll the decks as Twain once did, to go up to the Texas and play poker and sip a whiskey. What must it feel like to enter New Orleans in 2007 in a paddle wheeled steamboat?

Congress passed the Safety at Sea Act, in 1966. The law sought to protect the public from injury by requiring all boats that carry overnight passengers to be made primarily of steel. The Delta Queen has a steel hull but a wooden superstructure and for the following 41 years the Delta Queen received an exemption from Congress allowing her to operate. Any fool can see that this isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue this is about us, about preserving part of our past and passing on our heritage to the next generation.

But her exemption will run out in 2008 and the Delta Queen will be silenced. Not because she’s not safe but because Congress wants to play games about the issue.In June the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed its bill to renew the Coast Guard bill, but without the Delta Queen’s exemption. The committee's chairman, Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., opposes the exemption because, he says, the boat's advanced age and wood construction present an unacceptable safety risk, according to spokeswoman Mary Kerr.

You would think the chairman of the House Transportation an Infrastructure Committee from Minnesota would have bigger issues than a riverboat that has operated safely for 81 years.

"The exemption for the Delta Queen is from fire protection standards that apply to all other passenger vessels operating in the United States. I can't imagine the number of lives that could be lost if a fire started on the Delta Queen when everyone is asleep," Oberstar said in a statement.

Other than her superstructure’s frame being constructed of wood rather than steel she meets all requirements.

Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, also opposes the exemption, mainly because the boat is not unionized.

Nobody is a stronger supporter of unions than I am but do we really want to kill a piece of Americana because we can’t have our way? This is a one of a kind piece of history from a bygone era. Steamboats were considered dangerous in Mark Twain’s day with wood fires, coal stoves and few safety features. By 1926 the technology reached its zenith .Her 81 years is proof enough of her worthiness.

Soaring national debt, failing infrastructure, Minnesota interstate bridges collapsing, American Service people fighting and dying in god forsaken hell holes and what does Congress see as an important issue? Shutting down an 81-year-old steam powered riverboat that has traveled millions of miles without fatality.

We can build new riverboats, pale imitations of what some modern engineer thinks riverboats should be like, mere Disneyland artificial plastic illusions of America. Maybe that’s what our politician’s fear? Anything that reminds us of a time when America was strong and powerful and unafraid. America has never been perfect but we have become so obsessed with safety that our children aren’t even allowed to go out and play. We fear riverboats and threaten nuclear war; we make bullet proof book bags instead of decent schools. We give our children cell phones with locating devices when we don’t even realize where it is we are.

Perhaps the center for disease control should be called in for it is almost a certainty that the country is being led by a mad men and Congresses performance might lead one to believe it is extremely contagious!

I don’t have the money for a river cruise but it makes me feel warm inside just to know she’s still out there steaming. Late at night she navigates the bends and Mr. Bixby still trains his cub pilots. That the children on the riverbanks will hear her calliope just as their grand parents heard it and feel that connection to who they are and to the rivers that built America

[Demeter]

1. Politicians Want to Destroy History

to cover up their crimes.

[Chipper Chat]

2. My high school "sophomore trip" was aboard the Delta Queen.

We steamed up the Ohio River 30 miles and cruised back (1956).
I remember shiny brass everywhere. Best of all the Koolaid was free (the real stuff - back when the republican party was respectible).
The politicians dont seem to care, so it will be up to the people to save it from being permanently docked.