Saturday, February 23, 2008 by Ron & Anna Winship
Bureaucrats are a lonely bunch. They spend endless days in study
sessions, dealing with irate citizens, lobbyists and elected egos
"gone wild"! It is a terrible job for longevity...if you really
wanted to get anything done! Even if you come up with a great idea
...it takes months, years and sometimes decades to reach anything
called fruition. Today, with the advent of the internet....the
processes would seem to be easily accelerated. But that is just
what it is: Perception! The realities are sadly similar to the
1960's. "Is the process open to the public?", "Will the developers
and moneyed people buy off?", "Can we get the public to vote for
some stupid boondoggle....that will take 20 years to get started
and ensure that the bureaucrats retire with a higher pay grade?".
An ugly process to be sure! Nothing straight-forward, nothing
obvious, nothing efficient, nothing that doesn't cost an arm and
a leg to accomplish - Welcome to Government!
So, when these little baby policy issues pop up, you have to
kind of "feel their pain!" Like, let's just change the name of
our County! Let's make it "Apple Butter County"...rather than
Orange County for example! Hey, maybe Smuckers or one of those
big jam and jelly companies will pay for another Stadium in our
county, if all we have to do is just: "Change the name!" The
scary part of this process is....that they may not even have to
ask for a vote of the people to get that done! These guys can
retire in 15 years and say: "Hey, we changed the name of Orange
County to "Apple Butter County" way back in 2008! All it took
was a quick vote of five Supervisors who were just following
the suggestion of perhaps an array of County professional
bureaucrats! The Supervisors can claim that it wasn't even
"their idea", but once brought to them - "What could they do?"
Well, fast forward to John Wayne Airport, Orange County Airport,
Santa Ana Airport, Tom Reilly Terminal and the fact that the
true name should have been: Eddie Martin Airport! People forget
sometimes the roots...of things....like the fact that in the
1950's Eddie Martin had to rent out a runway on Sundays to Drag
Racers..just to make ends meet! Hey, Test Pilot Paul Mantz died
in a homemade plane built for "Flight of the Phoenix" with James
Stewart. Orange County Airport was designated such..because it
was surrounded by Orange Trees...if you can believe it. The FAA
(Federal Aviation Administration) was pretty flexible about names
in those days. There was even a Tustin Blimp Hanger Base....now
a shopping center called "The District". Odd name for those of
us that thought they should have called it "The Blimp Hangers"!
Rich people and electeds all around the county have spent years
erecting pieces of metal and cement which adds their names and
tells people: "I was there way back then - and we did that!" A
little too self aggrandizing for the average person to relate
to! But those bureaucrats know how to "pander to the electeds"
and get them all excited. It starts with those basic "Citizen
Proclamations"...and goes downhill from there!
So, what do they want to call our beloved John Wayne Airport
...that should have been Eddie Martin Airport? Oh, "The OC"?
Aren't we then supposed to have some health drink called
"The OC" first? Something that is a combo or Red Bull and Orange
Juice? Aren't we supposed to have a variety of T-Shirts that say:
"I'd rather be in the OC!" (They already have those in the SNA
Gift Shop!) before we run out in the heat of the day and start
changing major FAA transportation designations? Who knows? But
to now take away the John Wayne Statue...which was our first
clue....and now to completely blot the name of John Wayne from
the Orange County lexicon.....is sort of unseemly! The concept
is that "John Wayne Aiport" is yesterday's news! We need a
Mischa Barton, or an Lindsay Lohan or Paris Hilton Airport
.....more up to date get it? Actually, we think the expansion
should be tied to that of Christina Aguilera instead. Much more
fitting...with all the additions of parking and added gates and
Customs area...ya think?
It is nice that John Wayne's relatives...Ethan in particular!)
have stepped up to the plate and are letting people know: "This
is wrong!" We agree: totally! We think Pilar, Patrick, Aissa,
Marisa, Michael, Toni and Melinda should all let people know
what they think! We also believe we need to give credit to
those Supervisors and non-elected bureaucrats that want to
demean John Wayne's memory..let them step up and be counted,
if they dare!!!!
Some things are just best left alone - and John Wayne Airport
is one them!
No comments:
Post a Comment