Open Letter to the US Congress: Come July 4th, just what are we celebrating?

Come July 4th, just what are we celebrating?

Charles Greene, member of the famous Greene river family that once owned the Delta Queen and many other packet boats on the Ohio and Mississippi River system has sent an open letter to the US Congress, asking for urgent action regarding an exemption for the Delta Queen. Here is what Charles Greene wrote:

Dear Members of Congress,


My name is Charles Greene. My dad, Robert Greene, was ferried off to his WWII troop ship in San Francisco Bay aboard the Delta Queen, which then returned loaded with wounded troops. My dad came back from the war. Far too many did not.

In 1947, my grandfather’s cousin, TomGreene, bought the Delta Queen, had her towed from California to Cincinnati, and put her into operation carrying passengers up and down the Mississippi River and its tributaries just as steamboats had done for more than 100 years.

Today the Delta Queen is the only remaining genuine steamboat carrying overnight passengers on our inland waterways. On her travels, she brings much-needed tourist revenue to many river towns, which will now be needed all the more after the devastating effects of the recent floods on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

Yet now some members of Congress want to put her out of business because she doesn't comply with a provision of a law that was never intended for riverboats.

The Delta Queen survived being towed through the Panama Canal without incident, and has served honorably and faithfully for more than 80 years without any serious safety incidents. The Delta Queen survived the recession that followed the attacks of 9-11, and Hurricane Katrina (although her then-owners did not). She is surviving $140/bbl oil.

But there is a good chance that the Delta Queen cannot survive her most lethal challenge to date: the inaction of Congress. Without an exemption to legal restrictions due to her wooden superstructure, this will be her last season.

To some in Congress the facts do not matter. They care only about the letter of a misapplied law. So to all of you I ask this question: Come July 4th, just what the hell are we celebrating?

Charles Greene
Lewisburg, KY