We’ve been pushing to revive our nation’s shipbuilding industry for the last dozen years or so, but to no avail. We’ve sent faxes and e-mails to hundreds in Congress and in the sitting administrations, but we’ve received not a single response or acknowledgment. Sound strange?

We’ve taken great pains to remind everyone how effective this strategy was when FDR revitalized the industry with his 1930’s Emergency Shipbuilding Programs – the very programs that terminated the Great Depression and, eventually, World War II as well.

Most of today’s Americans had yet to be born when that Great Depression descended upon the U.S., so for their benefit we wrote a little about it every now and then. We dwelt upon the best memories, though, and we placed particular emphasis on the steps FDR took to put an end to those discouraging times. Our very best memories had to do with job creation and the welcome relief that was felt when a paycheck was brought home.

Today we have an advantage that even FDR didn’t have. We have international patents on a revolutionary container ship design that eliminates all foreign shipbuilding competition. So, what are we doing wrong? We’re trying to muscle in on someone else’s territory – that’s what we’re doing wrong.

But we’re not surprised. We’ve been down this road before. We’ve tried in the past to bring wealth and prosperity to the little people in this country, but then, as now, we were put on ice. We’re getting a bit long in the tooth, though, and it’s time to let it all hang out in the hope that someone with clout will break from the pack and save the country’s bacon.

Yes. We’ve been down this road before. In 1982, we presented a plan – a construction project, really – to President Reagan. Here’s how it was laid out for him:

“I would like to place in your hands an outline I’ve prepared for a national project:

1. This project will be many times larger in scope than the WPA, the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Space Program, and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline combined.

2. No pilot programs or research and development would be required. Today’s technology would be employed from start to finish.

3. It will take at least 15 years to complete the initial phases of the project.

4. It will be mankind’s greatest undertaking and greatest achievement.

5. Every U.S. citizen and most of the world’s population will benefit from this project for an indefinite period of time.

6. Unemployment will be eliminated on the North American continent and relations with Canada and Mexico will improve as a result.

7. Virtually every industry will participate and prosper. The following industries will flourish:

Airlines Electronics Heavy Manufacturing Steel
Automotive Farming Light Manufacturing Railroads
Banking Housing Merchant Marine Transportation
Construction Insurance Shipbuilding Trucking

8. The project will require construction of eight new cities and fifteen new harbors in the continental U.S.

9. At least 24 other cities and towns will experience a marked growth and development.

10. There will be a significant reduction in the cost of living.

11. Corporate profits will increase.

12. There will be windfall taxes for the Federal and State governments.

13. Welfare rolls will be greatly reduced.

14. Additional acreage will be made arable and the burden on Midwestern farmlands will be lessened.

“There will be many more aspects and countless benefits, and I feel that our nation will be forever grateful to you as the one who made this project possible.” –

President Reagan should have been a little curious, wouldn’t you think? He wasn’t. The only response we got was a letter of dismissal from someone in his office. So a few months later we tried to get to him through Nancy, his wife. We struck out there, too.

We know now that he had other priorities – dictated to him by the Pentagon and by the very powerful weapons industry. Their concerns back then had nothing to do with the well-being and welfare of U.S. citizens. Uppermost in their minds were the profits being generated – for them, but not for the rest of us – in the campaigns against:

– El Salvador (1981-1992)
– Nicaragua (1981-1990)
– Lebanon (1982-1984)
– Grenada (1983-1984)
– Libya (1986-1989)
– Iran (1987-1988)

Then, as now, we were picking on the little guys – but hey! – that’s where the real money is.

And the real money is still there. Since the Reagan days other “campaigns” were initiated by those sitting in the White House, like, for instance:

– Panama (1989-1990)
– Iraq (1991- ??)
– Kuwait (1991)
– Somalia (1992-1994)
– Bosnia (1995)
– Iran (1998)
– Sudan (1998)
– Afghanistan (1998)
– Yugoslavia – Serbia (1999)
– Afghanistan (2001- ??)
– Libya (2011- ??)

But if you want to talk about some real money, some honest money, imagine what the results would be if our shipbuilding recommendations and our “project” were to be executed simultaneously by, say, an Executive Order.

As luck would have it, that 1980s “project” and a 21st Century Emergency Shipbuilding Program would compliment each other. Hand in hand, the combined efforts and the eventual results would raise this country to heights never before dreamed of. This unanticipated tie-up would bring unprecedented prosperity to every single American.

We would no longer have to steal oil from innocent societies in distant parts of the world. We’d just buy whatever we needed. For cash. Just like the way we’re accustomed to shop at the local super market.

And we wouldn’t be forced by our leaders to send our youngsters overseas, to be maimed or killed by those defending what’s rightfully theirs. The casualty figures revealed by The U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs in December of 2009 should have been enough to convince us that our rulers have been misleading us. More than 75,000 youngsters killed and more than a million-and-a-half maimed in the Mid-East so far? And our leaders persist in leading us down this road to perdition?

A major problem is the government’s ability to deceive the average American because of its control of the media. It’s “bread and circuses” all over again, and all we can do is hope that “someone with clout will break from the pack and save the country’s bacon.” But is that all we can do? Hope?

Well, we’ve told you all about our U.S. and international container ship patents, and because we stated above that we’re going to let it all hang out, we’ll tell you all about the project we wanted to hand over to President Ronald Reagan. Maybe it will turn out to be the lure that will attract that “someone with clout”.