Pair Meets Apathy in Attempt to Enshrine Once-Proud Ship

Somebody--it was either George Bush or Rhett Butler--said that lost causes are the only causes worth fighting for.

By those standards, San Diegans Victor Noeder and Ron Bocivng have a pip of a cause: keeping the luxury liner United States from falling into foreign hands.

This is especially difficult because the ship has already been sold to a Turkish group and is being towed across the Atlantic to a Turkish shipyard.

The Turkish group swears it’s going to refurbish the United States and restore it to passenger-carrying duty (for the first time in two decades).

Still, Noeder and Bocivng have nightmares of a proud vessel being scrapped for razor blades and car bumpers.

“As a kid, I built a model of this ship,” said Bocivng, 52, a general contractor. “The United States is the best thing America has ever built.”

Noeder, 60, an importer-exporter, was on the ship’s maiden voyage in 1952 from New York to Southampton. “If the United States were on land, it would be as significant as the Washington Monument,” he said.

For weeks before the ship set forth, Noeder and Bocivng made the rounds of San Diego public officials. Visions of bringing the United States to San Diego as a museum-convention center danced in their heads.

True, Noeder and Bocivng don’t have two nickels to contribute to such a project. Details, details.

They went to the city attorney, the Navy, the city architect, the redevelopment agency and the City Council. They got the mildest encouragement, but nothing you could call a commitment.

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) prepared a bill to block the sale of the United States (which was built with taxpayer dollars). The legislation was back-burnered when the Turkish group promised to spend millions on renovation and keep the ship ported in New York.

“We figure a working ship is better than a museum,” explains a Young aide. “We’re hopeful the purchaser will make good on his promises.”

Last Thursday, the 990-foot-long, 53,000-ton colossus left the harbor at Newport News, Va. At seven knots, arrival in Turkish waters isn’t expected until mid-July.

“As far as I’m concerned, the story is not ended,” Noeder says. “Not at all.”

A Weird Political Year

Look me over.

* Pacific Beach bumper sticker: “Will Be President for Food.”

* San Diego “astro-historian” David Solte notes that, even before the Perot phenomenon, he was predicting the next presidential election might be decided by the House of Representatives.

Solte’s prediction was made in February’s issue of “The Mountain Astrologer.” So there.

* Ex-Rolodex Madam Karen Wilkening has been dropped from state parole two years early.

Wilkening says she’s now free to give her opinions of the Metro Homicide Task Force, which has been unable to solve a string of prostitute murders but managed to get her extradited from the Philippines.

So what are Wilkening’s opinions of the task force?

She says we’ll have to wait for her book.

* Yes, there are T-shirts in San Diego that say, “Friends Don’t Let Friends Vote Republican.”

* Now, that’s constituent service!

San Diego Councilman George Stevens began a community meeting in Oak Park by giving away free tickets to a Padres game. His tickets in the City Council VIP box.

* Grads in a hurry.

At 2:30 p.m. Sunday, graduation ceremonies commenced at Point Loma Nazarene College.

At 6 p.m., 42 of the newly minted graduates were on planes to Eastern Europe and beyond: nine new nurses going to Bucharest, 33 other grads going to do carpentry and community development in Moscow and Kiev.

* Overheard in a downtown elevator: “Never loan your motorcycle or your woman to a friend.”

* Again this year, tastelessness is de rigueur for over-the-line team names.

For example: “Robert Alton Harris Had Beans for Dinner and Gas for Breakfast.”

The Battle of Los Angeles

A letter writer to the Camp Pendleton newspaper suggests that, since Marines were sent to the L.A. riots, the Marine Hymn should now be amended:

“From the Halls of Montezuma, to the Long Beach DMZ. . . .”