New Statue Unveiled at Leading Airport in Nation's Capital

A statue of Ronald Reagan will be unveiled at Reagan National Airport this week, prompting questions about original efforts to rename Washington National Airport. For some, the rededication and renaming of the airport is a mere footnote in history. For others, like me, it's a sad reminder of government action against a group of workers with legitimate issues that marked a period of decline for the entire labor movement that continues to this day.

Washington National Airport has a distinguished role in the nation's air traffic system. A stone's throw from the nation's capital, the airport plays host to some of the leading figures and celebrities of our day. Whenever passengers take to the skies out of Washington National Airport, they can count on seeing heads of state, foreign dignitaries, senators and congressional representatives coming in and out of this busy air terminal. According to the local airport authority, more than 18.1 million passengers find themselves travelling in and out of Washington National each and every year.

In 1998, the airport was renamed "Reagan National Airport" in honor of Ronald Reagan, the 40^th President of the United States. For many of us, it was a big mistake. Not because we didn't respect the office of the President or credit this particular leader with several achievements in his own right, including the end of the Cold War as we knew it. No indeed, it was about something much closer to home. In 1981, a union of federal air traffic controllers went on strike in violation of a longstanding federal law prohibiting government unions from striking. Invoking an emergency situation under the 1947 Taft Hartley Act, President Reagan threatened that if the air traffic controllers did not report for work within 48 hours, they would lose their jobs and be terminated. The air traffic controllers did not return and continued to strike. Subsequently, on August 5, President Reagan terminated 11,345 striking air traffic controllers, replacing them with managers and military air traffic controllers who oversaw commercial air traffic until new air traffic controllers were hired and trained.

Washington, DC has endured its fair share of Ronald Reagan tributes. Steps from the White House, there's a massive government building (Ronald Reagan International Trade Center) named for this President. In 2009, a lovely statue of President Ronald Reagan was unveiled by former First Lady Nancy Reagan in the US Capitol Rotunda. Yet another statue was erected outside the US Embassy in London this year in honor of the 40^th President. It seems like these particular statues and building are fitting tributes to a US President who made his mark on the global stage.

Unfortunately, the new statue that's being revealed to the public this week at Washington National Airport continues to rub salt in the wounds of those of us who still honor the air traffic controllers all these years later. Like Occupy Wall Street protesters of late, these air traffic controllers put it all on the line to freely assemble and call attention to their workplace concerns and air safety issues only to find themselves fired by a powerful US President Reagan unsympathetic to their heroic efforts. In addition, city officials and airport authority critics have raised questions about the $80,000 needed to design the site and oversee site work for the $942,000 statue. Maybe they haven't heard there's a recession going on, you know?

RESOURCES

Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
www.metwashairports.com/reagan/210.htm

Reagan statue landing at DCA amid financial turbulence
WTOP News (October 6, 2011)

US President Ronald Reagan
White House