They love a charade

By: JOHN VAN DOORN - Staff Writer | Tuesday, October 25, 2005 10:58 PM PDT ∞

They held a meeting Monday and almost nobody showed up. The topic, where to put a new regional "international" airport, is sexy enough to draw crowds; it has in the past and it's a fairly dramatic topic.

The trouble is, ennui has set in. It's old, it's boring, nothing's happening that can be seen with the naked eye.

North County residents, as a class, are smarter than the average Let's Hold Public Forums 'Til the End of Time adherents.

North Countians seem to have concluded that what has been talked about for many years and discussed intensely since the naming in 2003 of an "authority" to study possible sites has now been talked just about to death.

There is in the air a feeling that somebody ought to pick a site already, and quit bothering us. Or that somebody has, and this is all charade.

The "authority" (which appears not to have much authority at all, to speak of) says it has gotten its list of possible sites down to nine, four civilian and five military. It put off for quite awhile even considering the military bases until the federal government had decided, nationwide, what military bases to shut down.

No bases around here got closed. Thus the authority has the authority (as of Nov. 11) to start considering military bases. But, as they say, fat chance. Our local members of Congress, in particular Darrell Issa, governor-installer, the sainted Randy "Duke" Cunningham, and Duncan Hunter, who runs the House Armed Services Committee, leaned on the authority in the first place to postpone considering military bases.

If you think these three will now permit the authority to open wide the bases for consideration as civilian airports, I have a book on ethics in government to sell you.

All three are ardent supporters of the war in Iraq. They are four-square behind every military allocation of funds, no matter how many billions are involved. They pledge allegiance to the Pentagon. So forget the military bases (although I, personally, have always thought Pendleton would make a splendid Lindbergh Field annex).

As is well known, a quite destructive virus called cynicism is loose upon the land. If the name of Tom DeLay, a well-known breacher of ethics codes, comes up, there is a certain amount of righteous fire-breathing. But many, many people ---- the cynics ---- say, "So what? They all do it."

When the honorable Dukester hit his run of bad luck ---- accusations of accepting bribes to favor military contractors, in a nut's shell ---- honest and true men and women were horrified and disgusted, and still are.

But the cynics say, "So what? They all do it."

North Countians are not cynics, by and large. But it seems to Observer that they cannot be easily fooled, either. They are of their own time, which is ---- to put as nice a face as possible on it ---- sleazy and corrupt in the corporate-political complex.

They look at the evidence: An authority with nine sites after two years? An authority that says it will whittle the list down to one before an up-or-down vote in November of 2006? An authority that keeps on calling meetings and setting up forums? The same state authority that is letting Congress types push it around? Oh, come on. Isn't it a charade? And hasn't it been from the start?

To look at the authority in this light is not to fall prey to cynicism. It is to see clearly and to think in a linear way. Jaded is as jaded does. There is a suspicion that the decision has already been made, and probably was made long ago as to where "they" want the new and expanded airport.

Forums on "potential sites" are thus not particularly attractive any more.

Best guess? (This will be the one possibility to be voted on, come 2006.) Snatch some of the property near the present Lindbergh Field, add a runway and a few buildings, give the terminals extreme makeovers, and get on with life.

Contact John Van Doorn at (760) 739-6647, or jvandoorn@nctimes.com.