Flight Rules

Maybe it's the monsoon, but a weird floating litter of thoughts has descended upon me like tiny ashes from a distant fire or those little paper flowers that issue down from discharged Pop-Pops. This flutter of disparate images has set off a corresponding flurry of smashing and converging realizations, a classic sign of a mental run-off caused by information overload, and has left me wandering in the sproutings of my saturated "mind field".

The writer's number one axiom is "Write what you know", and I believe that to also be the limit to which you should be held responsible. I say that as a caveat for what is to follow, and I hold it as a grace I parse out to others hoping that, when needed, they will afford it equally to me. We know what we know, and we communicate accordingly. If we were all omniscient we would never dare speak nor stroke a keyboard for two reasons: 1) it would be unnecessary, and 2) we would constantly fear causing offense as everything has the possibility to offend someone. On Morning Joe just now, my pal Joe Scarborough (who had the good sense to marry another Susan from S.C.) was reminiscing about today's 30 year anniversary of a particular event during the Reagan presidency. But let's set that aside for a moment. In a  later segment, Chuck Todd referred to the matters left on the table by a fleeing Congress, saying there was a lack of "band-width" among the legislators. Simply put, their heads were full and they went home. And as I stated in the first paragraph here, I know how that feels; it happens to us all.

But here's what I know: Currently, 4,000 FAA-employed families have been trying to figure out how to pay their bills as they've been hit with layoffs because the Repubs and Dems cannot agree on whether or not to allow the agency to spend the money that it has sitting in its coffers. Also, 70,000 FAA-employed construction workers are out of work for the same reason. Now, with the law-makers gone on sabbatical, these folks face the rest of the summer without benefit of a single paycheck.

This fight is over 13 airports and, presumably, labor rights. But let's set the ideology to one side and look at the irrefutable facts: the math. Rep. John Mica (R-FL) is upset that subsidies to 13 rural airports is a waste of  the government's money. Meanwhile the government is losing $200 million in ticket tax revenue each week that this situation continues, and could be on course to lose $1 billion by the time the problem is rectified. With the FAA in limbo, the airlines cannot collect taxes on the tickets they sell. Of course they raised their prices as soon as the stalemate began in order to recoup those funds. And those subsidies to the 13 airports? They cost the government $200 million a year. Same amount the government is losing every week in those uncollectible taxes. And then there are those 74,000 families and their bills. All over John Mica's 13 rural airports.

And just what was that 30 years ago today anniversary I mentioned? Ironically it's the speech President Reagan gave, warning the air traffic controllers that if they did not report to work within 48 hours that they would be terminated, which they were. Sure, many will tell you that the ATC's old union, PATCO, reached too far and expected too much and therefore needed to shoulder some of the blame. But what I know is that thousands of highly-trained workers with jobs critical to the mobility and security of the nation were thrown out of work, work that you cannot hire just anyone off the street to do. And their very specific skill set--vital to their work--doesn't exactly translate "word-for-word" to many other jobs. And aren't we all glad that the generation of controllers who came after them were there on that awful morning nearly 10 years ago to do what had never been tried before and a task for which there was no playbook: a total, immediate shutdown of our entire airspace.

I don't agree on a lot with Joe, but I do appreciate his ability to view most sides of the issues. And as I stated above, I do not hold against a person that which they do not know. But I know that some of those PATCO workers were ruined, and sadly some gave up forever. It pains me with guilt to think of them, of their families, as I realize that I personally benefitted (many years later) from their sacrifice. Nature, and government work, abhors a vacuum and that vast vacancy demanded to be filled.

But let's get back to that playbook. Joe and I are both HUGE college football fans and I once heard an NCAA head coach (and I'm sorry I do not remember who he was) reply to a reporter that his job was nothing compared to that of his son-in-law. It went something like this: "Sure, if I'm over .500 I may well get to go to a bowl game and keep my job. If my air traffic controller son-in-law goes .500, people die and it makes the news." They have to be perfect: every minute, every flight, every day, every time.

It's a solemn anniversary to be sure, and again, my heart goes out to the PATCO families that are no doubt wrestling with more emotions today than I can ever know. But what I do know is that those 74,000 families today are struggling, and their work--though not as well-known as that of the air traffic controllers--is vital still, and the bills will keep coming, and their kids need their school supplies. I wish the "band-width" was just a little bit wider in Washington for those folks' sake. And there are so many other worried and desperate people I'll never even know about and I feel for them too.

That's what I know. That's the view from my side of the street. That's the information I have available to me now. Meanwhile engineers stand idle and potholes bloom on runways; safety inspectors have been asked to stay on the job, without pay, and charge their government travel on their personal credit cards. As a writer, I must live by the axiom to write only what I know. As a fallible human being, I must afford my fellow travelers pardon and "forgive them what they do not know", and I hope they will reciprocate when I venture into the ill-fated journey of rhetorical flourish. It's never as simple as one side sees it; there are always complications.

The flight danger here is that in their flight--Sen. Reid to see the blooming branches of his pomegranate trees in Nevada--our government's legislative "branch" leaves a lot of baggage grounded. There are trade agreements to be signed on which no one seems to have much disagreement. There's the FAA stalemate.

I wish we could do something about that "band-width" problem in Washington--an illustrative example by way of symbolism for sure--but unfortunately it seems we've lost some of our ability to appreciate the investment in infrastructure. We should build more and "tear down" less, for all our sakes.