Here I sit in the terminal at National Airport, a facility that has been renamed in honor of a president who fired all the air traffic controllers.
First, a report on my airport experience – painless! I was worried that I would spend hours mired in inefficient security, but it took only a moment. I put my bag and laptop through the x-ray machine, and walked on through – that was it! No interrogation, no demonstrating that my PowerBook was real and not a bomb, no sniffing my sneakers. And yet, the security looked tight to me. The biggest difference in security that I saw was new barriers that look like they prevent anyone from slipping around the security station. There was only enough room for me to move from point to point, and no room for someone to go around me as in the past. That made me feel better about my laptop, too – in the “old days” you often would make it to the end of the conveyor after your items had passed through, where they could be stolen. Today, they were keeping each person moving in parallel with his bag. They only let one person through the detector gate at a time. More secure and less possibility of theft.
Of course, all this means that I now must spend 2 hours sitting at the gate waiting instead of in the security line.
Now: this whole Reagan Airport thing. Read on.
How dare they! First things first. Aren’t Republicans the less-government, no-mandates group? Don’t they revere state’s rights over Federal interference? Not when they have the opportunity to force their views upon other people, whether it be in the bedroom, in the board room, or on local schools, libraries, and airports.
Since the 1940s, our local airport has been named “Washington National Airport.” Makes sense, don’t you think? Named for both a city and a president. But Mr. Bob Barr (R, Ga) couldn’t leave well enough alone. After naming the largest government office building in Washington after Mr. Reagan (the man who railed against big government), Barr pushed through yet another pointless piece of legislation renaming OUR airport for Reagan. What in the hell is the point of that? This horrible little man from Georgia – GEORGIA – forced upon the citizens of the Washington area a name change which – besides being in honor of a man this area did NOT support – cost this area millions of dollars. Signs everywhere had to be remade, maps reprinted. Then Mr. Barr threatened our subway system by withholding Federal funds until they renamed the SUBWAY STATION at the airport. (The station was called, appropriately enough, “National Airport.” Mr. Barr insisted that out of town visitors would not be able to find the airport because they would be looking for “Reagan National Airport.” As there is only one airport on the entire subway system, I find this argument laughable. If his constituents are that stupid, they should stay away from Washington – there are far more confusing Metro station names. Try Adams Morgan/Woodley Park/Zoo – not only does that name not fit on the signs, but it not close to Adams Morgan NOR the Zoo.)
Anyway. That Metro name change cost many thousands as EVERY sign and map throughout the system had to be revised.
All for a man from Georgia. Against the wishes of every jurisdiction in the Washington area, especially Arlington, where the airport and Metro station are located. I’m sure Mr. Barr chuckled with glee over that: in Arlington, we are overwhelmingly Democratic. Our county board is composed entirely of Democrats (and amazingly, Arlington has low taxes, a fantastic public works department that keeps our infrastructure in terrific shape, and low crime. Hard to believe with those tax and spend, lawless liberals). But they couldn’t stop the Republican from Georgia.
I propose a new goal for the Democratic party: Just to counter and piss off the Republicans, I think we should have a library, school, or airport, in each and every county in this great country of ours, named for William J. Clinton. OK, include brothels in that list of possible institutions. (And we can also name a few things for Hillary, as well. That’ll show ’em.)
Let’s start with William J. Clinton International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia.
