The effectiveness of our e-mail and letter writing campaign has exceeded all expectations. A reporter at the Philadelphia Daily News has informed me that the newspaper has never had more response to any one single story or editorial in its over 100 year history! Now that's what I call grassroots in action!
Let's keep up the momentum and start convincing Congress to protect the Big U. If you have to, go into your representatives local offices and let your voice be heard! After all, they work for YOU.
Robert Hudson Westover
Here are some of the letters to the editor printed in the Philly Daily News...
'Ray's ship' not junk
My father, Col. Raymond M. Hicks, as executive vice president of United States Lines Co., participated in conceiving and building the SS United States. Many called the liner "Ray's ship."
Your editorial (Feb. 9) was written apparently without being aware of efforts under way to have the Big U back in either full operation or as a symbol of America's supremacy on the seas.
We need such a symbol to help turn our nation around to pride and moral responsibility - values absent for almost eight years. Rather than degrade this once monarch of the seas, you should join the effort to restore her.
D. SCOTT HICKS, Dataw Island, S.C.
The SS United States is not junk;
it's just old. It was the world's fastest ship, and would still be beautiful if it were fixed up.
I tell all my friends about the ship, and I am saving my money to help fix it up. I even brought cookies to school that were shaped like the ship. I don't like your idea about filling that boat with junk.
DANIEL STEWART, Swarthmore
Editor's note: This 5-year-old's letter was "dictated to and addressed by his mother."
Ahoy, Daily News: Don't give up this ship
Why did the Daily News, so instrumental in helping inform the public about the SS United States, print such an ugly editorial (Feb. 9) on this maritime legend?
This "eyesore" is one of the greatest design achievements from the last century. She was designed by William Frances Gibbs, a Philadelphian whose designs kept Philadelphia's shipyards turning out the largest number of ships during and after World War I and fed the families of desperate-to-work shipyard workers.
Philadelphia has one of the nation's most inexcusable waterfronts because of the invisibility of its great maritime past and the uninteresting and transient designs now there to "attract" tourists. Camden will soon have its own maritime celebrity, the battleship New Jersey. City Hall should bury the hatchet with the owner of the SS United States.
Stop complaining. Philadelphia has one of the greatest ocean liners ever built in in its own back yard.
Go pick on City Hall - that's a city landmark which could be called an eyesore.
BILL TILLEY, Philadelphia
One can only hope your suggestion regarding the SS United States was facetious. We have the opportunity to rescue one of the few truly great ocean liners, a symbol of American achievement.
It would be far better to use the power of the press to preserve a historic artifact than to destroy it.
JON E. SALLEY
Hutchinson, Kans.
The SS United States Foundation has put forth an unbelievable effort to raise awareness of this ship's plight, enlisting members worldwide, and even succeeding at getting her listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
To say she is a forgotten, rusting hulk is just plain wrong.
STEVE SWANSON, New Orleans
The SS United States has and will always be a national icon. The SS United States Foundation has had her placed on the National Register of Historical Places, and is working on having her registered as a historical site so she can be restored to her proper dignity. I was privileged to sail on her twice, and my father was with US Lines over 30 years.
Please do not work to destroy her - work to save her.
JIM RICHTER, Tulsa, Okla.
Your editorial displayed an ignorance of the intangible value of the SS United States and an incredible insensitivity to its historic relevance. Fortunately, the National Register of Historic Places, the National Landmark Commission and the National Trust for Historic Preservation disagree.
I am not a Philadelphian, although I've made the trip to your city to see the ship (leaving some tax money in the city coffers). Even in its current faded condition, SS United States is an awesome representative of a time in history well worth preserving.
Unlike the autos you mention, the ship presents no danger, blocks no streets and has not been abandoned. Decisions will be made about how/when/where to bring her back to "life" productively and appropriately.
Until then, she waits, quietly.
The fact that the waiting is happening on the Delaware should not prompt the kind of shortsighted mock outrage you expressed. The ship deserves better.
DAN MICHAU, College Park, Md.
In your zeal to be oh-so-clever, you overlook the SS United States's irreplaceable significance to our national heritage. It was the crowning achievement of maritime engineering in her day.
Our country never had a ship that could compete with the Britishn and French until the SS United States was built in the '50s. We were late to the party, but we were the belle of the ball.
To suggest she be put to such an undignified end is to ignore all that she represents, like calling for conversion of the Lincoln Memorial into a parking garage.
Air travel has made "cruises" obsolete? Tell that to the multibillion-dollar cruise industry.
Then again, apparently Gilligan himself is on your editorial staff.
MARK PERRY, Los Angeles
The thousands who sailed on the SS United States would not agree with that editorial.
I don't see how a ship with this history can be placed in a category with junk cars. She has earned the right for more respect. At least her name does.
JACK GIVEN, Lansdale
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