[QUOTE=c.captain;171732]please post your letter here for us unwashed to read…I want to see it[/QUOTE]
Not my greatest letter but nothing to ba ashamed of.
Dear Editor
I just read that article "Bad Regulations Can Kill..." by Eftychis John Gregos-Mourginakis & Joshua Jacobs.I can honestly say that it is the most ridiculous article I have read in a long time. Repealing that "Bad Regulation" would destroy the US flagged Merchant fleet, put thousands of shipyard workers out of work and undermine the security of our nation.
I suspect Eftychis (what the hell kind of name is that?) and Joshua are fine young men who may even think they are honestly doing good by decrying the Jones Act. But those two little pukes have no knowledge of the maritime field, except maybe what they picked up on Wikipedia. I suggest you have real writers look into serious topics like our cabotage laws before you commit the ideas of halfwits to print.
We have about 300 US-flagged merchant vessels each with about 30 shipboard personnel. We also have thousands of people working in offices supporting these ships. We have thousands of shipyard workers from Bath Iron Works to NASSCO. All of these jobs would be gone or put in serious jeopardy if the Jones Act were to be repealed.
Since before the US was even a country trade has been it's life's blood. Almost every piece of materiel and supplies needed to fight our wars has been borne on US-flagged merchant ships pressed into this service from their normal commercial operation when needed, or specially constructed for the job in US shipyards. These shipyards that you apparently want to destroy turned out thousands of cargo ships during the last world war. These ships carried the supplies that permitted the allies to win. In more recent times, reserve ships by the scores were activated to bring all the gear and supplies needed to fight in the middle east. Where do you think those seamen came from to man those ships? Without a peacetime merchant fleet, there would have been no pool of US seamen to draw from in our countries time of need.
From a security standpoint, would you rather have US citizens, vetted and credentialed by the US Coast Guard hauling millions of gallons of gasoline from one US port to another or some foreign national who can not be vetted by us? If we throw out the cabotage laws for shipping, what's next? Oh US truck drivers are too expensive, let's have Mexican drivers hauling freight between US cities. Let's have Chinese airline pilots flying passengers from New York to Las Vegas in Russian built and maintained aircraft. It's a slippery slope we don't want to slide down.
Maybe you are just pandering and doing the dirty work for Sen McCain and his farmers that are always crying because their taxpayer subsidized crops have to shipped on expensive US flagged bulk ships when the US gives away food to starving nations, but what you are doing is wrong, and I had to let you know it.
If you feel the need to discuss this further you may email me. I am out of reach on a liquefied natural gas tanker at the moment.
Sincerely.
Capt. Phil O’Connell