Letter to America

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

_______________ Forward Header _______________
Subject:        Letter to America
Author: EEkid () aol com
Date:           13th December 2004 10:59:18 am

Jurek Martin: Letter to America
Published: December 10 2004 19:48

Airports are gateways to countries, especially those serving capital cities. They can, do or should reflect at least 
some of the values and standards that a country likes to think is its public face to the rest of the world.


London's Heathrow, for example, is messy but it works, a reflection of the great British virtue of muddling through 
against all odds. Charles de Gaulle in Paris is quintessentially French: lots of style but infuriatingly difficult to 
negotiate. Moscow's Sheremetyevo had all the charms of Soviet bureaucracy, offset by vodka and Cuban cigars.

Which brings us to the strange and disturbing case of Dulles Airport outside Washington, DC. I think there is a 
conspiracy of silence in the American media not to report about Dulles and it is time it was broken.

On the plus side, Eero Saarinen's elegant design, even if now extended, still soars over the flat Virginia countryside, 
sometimes seeming all the more beautiful because for years it has been an oasis in a desert of construction. But that 
is the sum of the plus side, period. Whether leaving or arriving, Dulles is without other redeeming virtues.

Two recent personal trips, and anecdotal evidence beyond number, show an airport in chaos - think Calcutta, Nairobi or 
any other erstwhile Third World hell hole, where to get on or off a flight was often an achievement in itself, and you 
have Dulles. This is not exactly appropriate for the world's only superpower.

The slowly shuffling lines to pass through security snake endlessly inside and sometimes outside the airport itself (I 
calculated upwards of half a mile on one recent non-holiday midweek afternoon). Every other person seems to be on a 
cell phone to airlines saying they were going to miss flights in spite of arriving two hours early, to friends and 
relatives advising of cataclysmic delays.

Women and children can be seen weeping while businessmen gnash their teeth. A Scandinavian ambassador of distinctly 
democratic persuasion says that for the first time in his long career he has started using diplomatic privileges to 
evade the chaos. Meanwhile the airport's public address system is either silent or incomprehensible, unless warning 
that smoking is prohibited.

I used my time in line to call The Washington Post to say I thought there was a story here that a reporter might 
investigate, but I don't think one ever appeared. What did make page one, though, was a photo of a just opened high 
tech walkway, thus fostering the illusion that everything is up to date in Dulles, as well as Kansas City. Give me a 
break.

The collective agony is compounded because to complain publicly is not allowed any more when the issue is national 
security, even if its implementation is far from perfect. It is, for example, patently obvious that Dulles does not 
have enough security gates, but to point this out could mean a one way ticket to Guantánamo.

It would also be unwise to ask if it is always entirely necessary to half undress before passing through screening, 
frozen-footed, clutching belt-less trousers, boarding passes and government-issued identification clenched between 
teeth.

Last month I witnessed a security agent ordering a mother to pass a three-month-old separately through screening (by 
rolling the child through, perhaps).

Arriving is no breeze either, especially on flights from overseas. Passengers are funnelled through a series of narrow, 
windowless corridors, often moving no faster than they were on the way out before passing through security, only to be 
subject to the not always tender mercies of customs and immigration, which is another story entirely.

Another Dulles indignity has just been added. Those waiting in the international arrival hall used to be able to get a 
glimpse of the huddled masses inside whenever the swing doors opened to let passengers out. Large ugly black screens 
now prevent even this minor facility, installed presumably to stop terrorists inside passing hand signals to their 
accomplices outside (as if they would not be using cell phones anyway).

Finally, there is the question of how to get the 25 miles from Dulles into the capital of the land of the free. Just 
about every other country regardless of the state of development has managed to provide a variety of transport options 
at a reasonable cost.

But at Dulles there is no economical downtown bus any longer, unless you count the under-advertised one connecting to 
an underground stop some miles away, practical only if travelling fairly light.

There is no light rail or underground service, though the airport access highway has plenty of space for one in its 
central reservation.

This is because not-in-my-backyard suburban communities in Virginia keep objecting to the cost and because federal and 
state governments, caring little about public transportation in any case, will not independently step into the breach.

Even the taxi service, which costs 50 bucks and up, is a monopoly (and this in the bastion of capitalism) while the 
ubiquitous blue van facility, at about half the cost, can take its time depositing you at your destination. And, 
naturally, car parking rates seem to rise every quarter.

Finally it is impossible to say if Dulles is a nice place to eat and shop. You can do neither while shuffling in line. 
You are just relieved to get out of the place on the same day.





-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/