guest post by Todd Lappin (Telstar Logistics)
San Francisco’s most handsome World War II veteran, the Liberty Ship S.S. Jeremiah O’Brien will tonight play host to a party celebrating the premier of a new History Channel documentary called (… wait for it…) “Hero Ships: S.S. Jeremiah O’Brien.” Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door, and can be ordered online. The screening will take place aboard the O’Brien, at San Francisco’s Pier 45 at Fisherman’s Wharf. No need to bring a life vest: The ship will be moored for the entire event.
photo by Telstar Logistics
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
dear Todd and Telstar,
There’s a long list of historical delusions that get proliferated through winner’s history and war memorials and I’m sure the SS jeremiah doc will do wonders in adding to them.
FYI US forces, such as the “liberty ship” relic didn’t participate in fighting fascism in Europe until 1943… long after a number of US industrialists had already cashed in big time on contracts with the 3rd Reich… Long after the holocaust had ripped apart the lives of millions. Edwin Black’s research of IBM’s alliance with Germany for one is now irrefutable. Even the Bush family has been reported to have profited from its business with Germany … DURING the war.
Oakland-based community artist Slobodan Dan Paich tried for years to transform a military ship from the mothball fleet into an Artship and be used for all sorts of arts education and international diplomacy projects. He tried to get it ported in several places in SF Bay and was rejected repeatedly.
So now it’s no surprise that Pier 45 has instead this piece of patriotic shit floating in the swill of false memories and military disinformation programs.
Sorry, ain’t gonna be dropping no $25 to feed the ONGOING war + propaganda machines.
And the History Channel !? Which military contractor / broadcast network owns That one ??
Interesting that you know so little about Liberty Ships, and what this ship specifically stands for on Pier 45, yet you feel entitled to use this forum to promote your own agenda and spread misinformation.
If your beliefs are against the military industrial complex, and the profiteering of industrialists over the now touted quest to end fascism, so be it. Please try not to take away what this ship really symbolizes and how it actually got to pier 45. This was a merchant vessel, not a Navy combat ship. It became a floating museum after a very long and arduous journey, and remains an unrelenting task to maintain. The ability to have this ship taken from mothball and turned into a museum in the form that it is in, happened as a result of the combined efforts of over a thousand volunteers for the last 30 years.
It is more than a piece of patriotic shit floating in the bay. It is a tribute to the common American, the women and men who manufactured these Liberty and Victory ships. It is a living example of one of the first times women and people of color became equal working partners with white men. It is a tribute to the merchant and Navy sailors who risked their lives transporting supplies around the world. It was this logistical effort that allowed troops to fight in every theatre of the war, for both the US and allies. Merchant seamen were risking their lives long before the United States entered the war. Last, this ship is a preservation of industrial methods once used by this country. May we continue to have it to remember that we actually did work in this country at one time.
In the future, as you get on your soapbox for your other issues, maybe next time do some research into why things exist. It would make your words bear greater weight and might allow you to be more persuasive.