Last week, my husband and I did one of those things we say we must do "some day."
Learning that the legendary Delta Queen might be taken out of service this year, we booked a one-week trip on this glamorous old rear paddlewheel steamer.
As I started writing this column, the Delta Queen steamed by Huntington in the middle of the night. The issue today is not that this venerable old steamer that used to call at Huntington no longer stops here (that's a topic for another week), but that soon she may be forced into extinction by politics. That is wrong. The Delta Queen must be saved.
The apparent issue is that the Delta Queen needs its 10th exemption from the 1966 Safety at Sea Act, which addresses wooden vessels on the high seas. The law restricts wooden ships from carrying more than 50 overnight passengers; the Delta Queen accommodates more than three times that number.
The Delta Queen, the last steam-driven overnight passenger boat, and actually a national historic landmark, has a steel hull and numerous safety devices, but it has a wooden superstructure. This latter point makes Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., claim the need to take the boat out of service is a safety issue.
However, people from many walks of life and two news sources that regularly are poles apart -- The New York Times and Fox News -- are in total agreement as to why this congressman has suddenly decided the Delta Queen has to go.
Fox News reports that "the only thing that has changed is the boat went from a union member crew to a non-union member crew."
The New York Times also noted that the general counsel working with the company that now runs the Delta Queen said the union indicated it "could help change Mr. Oberstar's position..."
Additionally, the Marietta Register Online noted that Congressman Oberstar "voted for the exemption in 2006 shortly before the Delta Queen (a union boat for more than 30 years) was purchased by Seattle-based Majestic America Line and made a non-union boat."
Congressman Oberstar says the issue is "safety." Did the Delta Queen suddenly become unsafe in the past two years? Why is this man so concerned about its safety now?
Having seen this amazing boat glide up and down rivers at 6 to 8 miles per hour with no evidence of serious safety problems in its lifetime, it would be criminal to take it off America's rivers.
There are a few Web sites that seek support to save the Delta Queen, but it would be particularly helpful if West Virginians would e-mail or write their Senators, Robert C. Byrd and John D. Rockefeller, and especially Congressional representatives Nick Rahall, Alan Mollohan and Shelley Moore Capito. Some reports indicate Rahall and Mollohan are ready to vote to close down the Delta Queen.
In 1970, a similar situation unfolded because of concerns about "fire safety." There is no evidence that this boat has a new safety issue. Rather it appears that good old politics is poised to destroy a national treasure that cannot be replaced. The Delta Queen is an American icon, not a Democratic, Republican, union or non-union issue.
Massive support of letters to Congress and much publicity saved the Delta Queen in 1970 for another 38 fire-free years on our rivers. Let's do it again.
Diane W. Mufson is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Huntington. She is a citizen member of The Herald-Dispatch editorial board and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page. Her e-mail is dwmufson@comcast.net.
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