Richard Agans: International Man of Competence

Richard Agans is not only more competent than your average bear, he’s more competent than your average Congresscritter, your average White House Press Corps member, and your average university professor. Who is Richard, I hear you cry? Why, he’s a Baggage Agent for Delta Airlines, that’s who. Allow me to illustrate my point.

The members of my family, and occasionally me too, refer to me as “the Big Dummy.” Usually it’s meant in jest, but every joke must be rooted in truth or it doesn’t work. And I demonstrated the truth of this label Monday of last week in Washington-Reagan Airport.

I was flying to New Jersey from Atlanta, for a couple of important speeches in New Jersey. Due to a spectacular FUBAR in Hartsfield International Airport (known to its many victims as the “airport from Hell”), I and a couple hundred other passengers had our planes leave on time, while we were still trapped in the security bottleneck. So I arrived in D.C. having missed my connection. The first order of business was to make some calls to change my plans and keep to my schedule.

But I walked away from the first available phone booth WITHOUT my trusty Dell Inspiron laptop computer. Minutes later, I realized that I’d left it, returned to the phone booth and discovered it was gone. The security people nearby directed me to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police station, where I reported the computer as lost, stolen or strayed, and got a business card so I could contact them later as I continued on my way.

I called them two days later, when the computer should have been turned in – if it was going to be turned in, rather than being subject to a “ten-finger” discount. No dice. Thursday I returned through the same airport and checked with the police in person. This time they mentioned what they hadn’t before, that there were other places the computer might have wound up. They called the Washington Transportation Authority which had a separate repository for lost items. Still no dice. Then I mentioned that my Delta ticket north was with my computer. They sent me to the Delta lost baggage office, where I had the pleasure of meeting Richard Agans.

After he told me that my computer – and the thousand hours or so of material that was not, of course, backed up – wasn’t there, Mr. Agans was smart enough to ask one more question. He asked me exactly where I had been when I made those phone calls. I told him I’d been at the other end of the concourse, next to the US Air ticket counter. He said, “Let me try one more thing.” He called the lost baggage office at US Air. A smile spread across his face, and then across mine, as he told me that they had my computer.

It occurred to me that there might be reasons for more than one office where lost articles might wind up in Washington-Reagan Airport. There is no excuse for these various offices not to talk to each other by e-mail, so all would know about any lost item that had been recovered. I went to US Air, recovered my computer, and thanked them for calling my home to leave a message, but no one was home since I was up north and my wife was in Indiana for a family funeral.

What was so excellent about what Richard Agans did? He asked all possible questions, got all possible information, then acted on the basis of that. Now let’s compare what he did with the other three groups – Members of Congress, reporters, and professors.

Last week various members of Congress responded to Alan Greenspan’s testimony on Social Security from the week before. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve had pointed out that the Baby Boomer generation is just a few years shy of retirement, and that is the largest group of cohorts on the population curve. They, or we (since I may be one of those, depending on how the beginning is defined), are not only largest in number but we are slated to live longer than any prior group of retirees. When we retire, there will only be two workers to support every retiree, compared to the 12 workers to support every retiree when Social Security first began.

Greenspan went through the following obvious steps. More retirees, living longer, under the same benefit schedule adds up to guaranteed failure of Social Security. That’s what Greenspan said. How did Congress respond? Those that didn’t run screaming into the night to hide under a rock issued statements saying that Social Security should not be changed, neither reducing the annual increases in the benefits nor delaying the age at which benefits begin. But none of them dealt with the facts that Greenspan laid out which are as plain as the nose on your face.

In the last two weeks the White House Press Corps, both in a press conference and in their subsequent stories, have been all over President Bush like a cheap suit on the subject of the “exploitation of the 9/11 attacks” in his first campaign ads. But not one of them bothered to follow the money and report the facts that the 9/11 “families” who objected were involved with an anti-war charity which is funded, ultimately, by two Heinz Foundations – yes, that Heinz, who is currently married to John Kerry, who is currently running against President Bush.

I had that story in a footnote last week. The first mention of that flow of “ketchup” money to certain 9/11 families in mainstream media occurred in the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion page. It has since come out that George Soros, who has also committed his millions to “the defeat of George Bush,” additionally contributed to the same left-wing foundation. But still, none of the members of the White House Press Corps have seen fit to ask the right questions, get the facts, and act (or report) on that basis.

As I said, Richard Agans is more competent than the average member of the White House Press Corps.

The final group to look at are the faculty and administrators of American universities. I reported weeks ago on the widespread and obvious bias of those people at Duke University. They are overwhelmingly Democrats and liberals, but they not only see no political bias in that situation, but some go far enough as to defend such hiring practices.

Additional evidence from additional universities comes up every week. University after university is shutting down Republican and conservative groups, cutting off their newspapers and magazines, and closing down their peaceful demonstrations. A recent example from Northwestern University was written up in detail in National Review Online. And it quotes extensively an e-mail from a university official to me, stating that he had the right to shut down such a demonstration because it was “disruptive to the community.”

Helloooo? Challenging accepted political views is ALWAYS “disruptive to the community.” That’s exactly why such events are conducted. But as long as they’re conducted only with words and ideas, not fists and clubs, that’s precisely why all universities exist: to explore conflicting theories of politics and societies. That’s one of the ways that false ideas are replaced with better ones, in any open society.

It’s an easy matter to examine whether the administration and faculty of any university are politically biased. But that’s almost never done. In this case, the President, the Board, the Department Chairs and the Search Committees don’t WANT to get the facts. Because if they got the facts they would – assuming they were intellectually honest – then be required to act on those facts.

Not only are the faculty and staff of most universities dumber than Richard Agans, they are deliberately dumb. I believe they know that they preside over political bias, they know what the facts are, but they can’t face up to those facts. They are hiding from the truth, like Congress is doing concerning the actuarial demise of Social Security.

It’s pathetic to say that Congress, the White House Press Corps, and the administration and faculty of most American universities could all take a lesson in fact-finding and competent action from Richard Agans, Baggage Agent for Delta Airlines. But it’s also true.

About the Author: John Armor is an author and columnist on politics and history. He currently has an Exploratory Committee to run for Congress.

This is two days early because I'll be on the campaign trail the next two days.

The main story is new to everyone, including Richard Agans. But the internal three stories are all favorites on FR. Enjoy.

J / BB

GeronL, here's the answer to your question. To the others: here's the latest to ping out.

I've thought about the question you raised, very seriously. These weekly columns, over the span of more than eight years, have been very useful to me. This is how I think through my theories of how society really works, and what things government should do, and SHOULDN'T do, which have effects on society.

That's a valuable kind of thinking that all Members of Congress ought to do, but danged few of them do. So that answers your question. Congressman Billybob will NOT be retired for the duration while his able assistant, J. Armor, Esq., runs for Congress.

These two gentlemen have been in it together for the duration. I figger it should stay that way.

John / Billybob

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.