Opinion: Why this bill to rename Dulles Airport should be repealed after President Trump takes office

Editor’s note: Poet and novelist Jay Parini teaches at Middlebury College. His most recent book is Borges and Me, a memoir of his 1971 trip to the Scottish Highlands with Argentine fabulist Jorge Luis Borges. This book will soon be made into a movie.

CNN
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Much of the news these days is tragic, with devastating wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the usual drumbeat of mass shootings and weather disasters. I often hesitate to turn on the radio when I wake up. What’s next? Unexpectedly, much-needed comic relief arrived in the form of a Republican proposal to change the name of Washington Dulles International Airport to Donald J. Trump International Airport.

And this wasn’t “Saturday Night Live.”

Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, the lead deputy majority leader in the House majority, announced this week that six other Republicans — Michael Walz of Florida, Andrew Ogles of Tennessee; Chuck Fleischman of Arizona, along with Paul Gosar and Barry Moore of Arizona, introduced this strange bill. Troy Neals of Alabama and Troy Neals of Texas.

“Freedom. Prosperity. Strength. That’s what America represents under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, the best president of my lifetime,” Reschenthaler wrote. Post to Xformerly Twitter.

It never ceases to amaze me how Republican officials seem endlessly willing to crouch at the feet of their masters in order to ingratiate themselves with someone with an insatiable ego.

Trump must be laughing at them. It is certainly so.

I travel a lot and last week I went to Dulles. Trust me, an influx of public funding, rather than a rebranding by Congress, could get some traction. It’s a nightmare hub, with a tram system that feels horribly outdated and slow. Walking from gate to gate often feels faster than biking. I often leave Dulles quite late in the day and there’s nowhere to get a sandwich or coffee after about 9pm. Going through customs and passport control at Dulles is very time consuming. Customer reviews for this airport are unsatisfactory.

More than 25 million travelers will use the airport in 2023, many of them international. Can you imagine what it would be like to arrive at something called Trump International?

Democrats were quick to react to the House bill. The very idea of ​​plastering a major airport with the name of a former president who has been impeached twice and indicted four times is outrageous. “Donald Trump faces 91 felonies,” Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly, whose district includes parts of Dulles, said in a statement. “I would suggest that if Republicans want to name a federal prison after him, they find a federal prison.”

Representative Don Beyer, also a Northern Virginia Democrat, recalled the day President Trump enacted a 2017 executive order banning travelers from certain Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. — and how lawmakers went to Dulles to seek legal representation for people detained under the policy.

trump is a man already He was found liable for business fraud by a New York judge and liable for defamation and sexual abuse by a jury. God knows what awaits him in his four trials. Trump denies any wrongdoing.

Perhaps it would make more sense to rename Rikers Island, a 413-acre prison facility in the Bronx, after one of New York’s most famous defendants. At Trump Island, when you arrive for processing, you are given an orange wig to match your orange jumpsuit. You might also want to read President Trump’s Bible.

All kidding aside, what you call your airport matters. We want to remember and uplift those who were important to our country and to our democratic project.president Ronald Reagan was a dignified figure, so it made sense to rename Washington National Airport for him. JFK was an appropriate name to replace Idlewild Airport. Edward O’Hare, the namesake of Chicago Airport, was a true hero and aviator who died in combat in 1943. But what about Trump?

President Trump’s record was not memorable. He avoided going to Vietnam due to “bone spurs” and received a letter from his father’s podiatrist friend avoiding services. More famously, he is said to have called those killed or injured in American wars “losers” and “sucks.” He said Arizona Sen. John McCain is not a war hero because he was “taken prisoner” and endured five years in captivity.

Enough of Trump’s claims that he is being harassed by the judicial system. He has not been indicted because he is running for president. In fact, he’s probably running for president because he wants to distract us from criminal charges.

I would argue that John Foster Dulles was a man of integrity and that his name should remain. He was a close friend and advisor to President Dwight D. Eisenhower and served as the esteemed Secretary of State from 1953 to 1959. Of course, he was a contemporary, and his strong stance against communism in all its forms defined his career. Like most people in high office, he had his admirers and detractors.

“Mr. Dulles was a man of complex character, full of contradictions,” the New York Times wrote in his obituary. “He was a shrewd and successful corporate lawyer as well as a moralist and political philosopher. He could organize his ideas quickly, fluently, and improvised. Although he coined the phrase, he was not noted as the originator of new ideas.”

However unoriginal as a thinker, Dulles was a man of stature and a dedicated public servant worth remembering.And — how depressed we were — he was. He is not the first former president to face criminal charges. (4 charges filed), accused of attempting to overturn the results of a peaceful election.