Re: SS United States National Flagship in Danger
I'm all for preserving old ships, and this one would seem to be worth it, but I'm not at all in favor of contacting my congressman.
I presume you mean that we should convince him and therefore the government to divert money from something else to save this ship, or to allocate budget money to do it.
I think a lot of people are realizing lately the government isn't a big pool of free money, someone will eventually have to pay for all the spending, and it's the taxpayers. Between wars and stimulus packages, my bill is big enough.
The thing about writing a congressman to get this saved is that it's less honest than asking for donations... a congressman is less work to convince, sure, but that just means that you're taking the path of least resistance to spend everyone's money on something you judge to be important. Anyone not wanting to spend the money still has to do so, because it's out of their hands. In theory they are represented by the congress, but in fact the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
I think that's exactly the same thing that lobbyists do today... use government contacts as a back door to get their hands on public money.
If you want to save this ship, start writing letters to people, corporations, organizations, etc asking for donations, hit the pavement and shake some hands.
Erik
PS: Mods, can you move this thread to dockside chat, since it's not really a restore thread?
