Last weekend I traveled to Pittsburgh for a meeting of Mennonite schools. It was interesting but the topic which dominated the weekend was the weather, specifically the 20 plus inches of snow which landed in the area. While some of the schools left early to avoid getting stuck we didn't really have that choice as the flights out of Pittsburgh were full and our flight Saturday afternoon was canceled. We were rescheduled to leave the next morning at 6:30 so our group left the hotel at 4:30 am to catch a flight most of us thought would be canceled.
Our principal had been able to pre-print boarding passes for everyone but me. The note said I needed to see a ticketing representative. The ticket agent said they needed to see my ID and after shining her light on it, she printed my boarding pass. When I asked about the chances of the flight leaving, she said, "honey, its not leaving, you'll be lucky to get out of here by Monday." She and her colleagues than began to discuss the stupidity of their bosses which were requiring them to issue tickets for planes which were not going to be flying.
After getting the ticket I went through security where I removed my shoes, emptied my pockets, placed my belongings on the scanner and walked through the metal detector. This took only a few minutes as there were plenty of security people on hand. A few seemed to be standing around without much to do.
From there we proceeded to our gate where we soon were told the flight was indeed canceled and that we could rebook a later flight. The only problem with this idea was that all the later flights were full, meaning we might get out by Monday at the earliest.
While the principal was deciding on our next course of action, I talked to a couple of airport personnel and a women from United Airlines. The plane we were to fly on was at the terminal, the pilot and flight crew were also able to get to the airport. What was keeping our plane from taking off was the snow, or more precisely, the lack of a ground crew to remove the snow. It wasn't difficult to see a couple of large snow plows sitting parked, from our terminal. I volunteered to run one (I figured I've run a skid loader so I could figure out a snow plow) but they didn't take me up on my offer.
The women working at the United stand in our terminal explained that the Airport Commission had been cutting budgets and one of the hardest hit areas was the department which handled snow removal. So there we sat because the airport couldn't hire people to remove snow. It was nice to know we were safe from terrorists, bombings, and other assorted attacks while we meandered around the airport. I did walk back towards the security area to see if they were still processing people. By this time most potential passengers were realizing they were not going to be able to fly so they were staying home. This meant the Homeland Security people were having a rather easy day as they sat around, visited and screened the occasional arriving passenger. It would have been nice to have a few of them work on cleaning the runway's but that wasn't going to happen.
Today we have another snow day so I did a search and ran across this news article which suggests another reason for the budget problems of the Pittsburgh airport. (http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/39115). Yesterday, Rep. John Murtha a Democrat from Pennsylvania died after serving in the House of Representatives since 1974. The article describes how Murtha designated or diverted funds to build an airport in Johnstown, PA. Able to handle the largest airplanes flying, the airport in Johnstown is described as being a little used facility, serving primarily as a backup, in the event the Pittsburgh airport was damaged in a military attack. Without going back and checking I think the last time Pittsburgh was attacked was during the French and Indian War.
So, we sat in the airport knowing, we were "safe" from terrorists as there was money to the pay all the Homeland security agents, but there was no money to pay people to shovel snow. Eventually we rented vans and drove to Cleveland where we were able to catch a flight to Chicago and then home.
Are we so fearful that we will gladly spend billions of dollars for "security" and at the same time make our lives less safe because we can't pay for what seem to be rather basic necessities, such as snow removal, education, and non-defense related infrastructure. It seems this is the choice the country is making. And it is one that will come back to bite the country in the butt, sooner or later.
