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 hey
locked the doors and switched off most of the lights at Ronald Reagan
Washington National Airport on Friday, which remains closed for
security reasons following the September 11 massacres. The decision
to keep it shut down is having a terrible effect on the local economy.
On normal travel days, about 45,000 people move through the airport.
Now there's nobody.
Some 10,000
airport employees are without jobs today. Last week, Virginia governor
Jim Gilmore said another 70,000 workers depend on Reagan National
for their livelihood. The Washington Post reported on Saturday
that about half of the 25,000 hotel workers in the area have either
lost their jobs already or expect to lose them this week. One study
says Reagan National is worth more than $5 billion to the local
economy, although the closing will be felt outside of the area,
too. U.S. Airways may actually go under because it depends so much
on the airport: It has laid off 11,000 of its 46,000 employees around
the country. The airline bailout package in Congress won't reopen
the runways at Reagan it relies upon.
Last Monday,
we argued in favor of restoring something like normal service to
Reagan National — anything less would give the terrorists another
victory, almost as though they had destroyed one more of our buildings.
We
suggested that Reagan National become the most secure airport
in America because of the security concerns that have kept it closed.
Perhaps we
are mistaken in these arguments, and Reagan National indeed poses
an enormous and unique threat to important government buildings
because of its location across the Potomac River from downtown Washington,
D.C., and this problem simply can't be fixed. It's hard to know
for sure, however, because the federal government hasn't explained
the logic behind the closure. It has only said the airport is offline
"indefinitely" for "security" reasons. Transportation
secretary Norman Mineta says the airport's future is in the hands
of the National Security Council and Secret Service.
With tens of
thousands of people now losing their jobs, however, these vague
explanations are no longer satisfactory. People thrown out of work
deserve a full account of what's happening, and the federal government
has a responsibility to give it to them. Why is Reagan National
uniquely vulnerable, when in fact none of the suicide hijackers
boarded planes from there? Why aren't Dulles International Airport
and Baltimore-Washington International Airport also closed —
especially considering that the plane that crashed into the Pentagon
left from Dulles? When will final decisions about the airport's
future be made?
Finally, it
would be nice to know who in the federal government didn't consider
Reagan National a terrorist threat just a few years ago, when the
airport underwent a large expansion. If tens of thousands of people
in the private sector must lose their jobs because of a security
oversight, it would be nice to see a few folks in the federal government
accept responsibility for it. They should resign. If they don't,
they should lose their jobs, too.
Gored Again
Maybe it's Al Gore's fault. After all, he ran the White House Commission
on Aviation Safety and Security in the second term of the Clinton
administration. Watch for operatives working on behalf of other
Democratic presidential candidates to advertise this little-known
part of Gore's resume.
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