Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley ought to be getting the message by now that his destruction of Meigs Field has implications far beyond his city limits. On Thursday, the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission approved a resolution to condemn the demolition and "to support AOPA's efforts to reopen Merrill C. Meigs Field."
"The Oklahoma Aeronautics commissioners understand what we have been unable to pound into Mayor Daley's head—that closing one airport that is part of an integrated system has a ripple effect that hurts everyone," said AOPA President Phil Boyer.
The resolution calls the midnight raid on the airport an "act of domestic terrorism," and notes that it "was destroyed on March 31, 2003, by Mayor Daley in an effort to close the airport for his own personal reasons but claiming homeland security as an excuse."
In their resolution, the commission joined AOPA's call to the Department of Homeland Security to prohibit restrictions on or closures of public-use airports on claims of national security without the department's concurrence and a specific threat.
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