This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Joseph Coletti, Fiscal Policy Analyst for the John Locke Foundation.
Five years ago Monday, instead of hearing the typical greeting upon walking in the office, I heard something that didn’t make much sense: “A plane crashed into the World Trade Center.” Like most people, I thought someone had crashed a Cessna into one of the towers – a kind of John Kennedy Jr. incident over Manhattan.
Then I saw the holes and realized that it was “planes,” and they were not Cessnas.
I worked in the Washington office of a Japanese trading company about three blocks from the White House. It was our job to interpret American foreign policy, meet with embassy officials and international experts, build ties with staff at the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, and provide some perspective on world events for the strategy department in Tokyo. The biggest issue for the office until then was enforcement of ILSA, the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act, which punished foreign companies investing in Iran and Libya. The trading company was part of a consortium trying to build a pipeline in Iran, and U.S. sanctions would make that difficult.
Three of us gathered in the general manager’s office to come up with a quick read on the situation. He asked whether an attack in Washington was likely. I said that there were not enough casualties likely for terrorists to strike there. About that time we would have been able to see smoke rising to our west in Virginia.
The Global War on Terror, the next world war, the long war, or the conflict that has no name had grabbed America’s attention. Our building was evacuated while rumors floated about more planes headed to the White House and other targets across the country. I walked home with thousands of others up 16th Street unable to get a cell phone connection and often looking back to make sure our landmarks were still there.
I spent much of the next week walking by the National Guard roadblocks and looking at the empty sky. (There was talk that Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport might never reopen). My work role now included explaining to my Japanese colleagues why Americans made references to Pearl Harbor in addition to following world reaction. In addition to the company’s existing projects, we now had to keep track of the Treasury Department’s list of terrorist organizations and financial institutions, follow developments of the USA PATRIOT Act, and explain U.S.-Israeli relations and the importance of Japan’s logistical support to the war in Afghanistan (which did not receive backing from the United Nations).
Despite legitimate concerns and complaints about the Transportation Safety Administration and other aspects of the domestic anti-terror efforts, none of it has proven unconstitutional. Think about that for a moment. More Americans died on September 11, 2001, than on December 7, 1941, and the great majority killed in the latter attack were civilians. But the president and Congress did not respond to this worst attack on American soil in more than a century by suspending the Constitution or interning Arabs. They did what the Constitution allowed.
Two hundred miles south of Washington, D.C., however, another chief executive and legislature were violating their constitution in response to a much different kind of “emergency.”
Gov. Mike Easley has said he had to take $225 million from the teachers’ and state employees’ pension funds to balance the state’s budget. Superior Court Judge Joseph John said the governor’s constitutional responsibility to keep the budget in balance did not override the constitutional guarantee that retirement funds are to pay retirement benefits.
Article V, Section 6 of the North Carolina Constitution is titled “Inviolability of sinking funds and retirement funds.” If that is not clear enough, see if this helps:
(2) Retirement funds. Neither the General Assembly nor any public officer, employee, or agency shall use or authorize to be used any part of the funds of the Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System or the Local Governmental Employees’ Retirement System for any purpose other than retirement system benefits and purposes, administrative expenses, and refunds; … the funds of the Teachers’ and State Employees’ Retirement System and the Local Governmental Employees’ Retirement System shall not be applied, diverted, loaned to, or used by the State, any State agency, State officer, public officer, or public employee.
Five years later, the state still owes $130 million to the retirement funds. The state should also voluntarily provide interest on the money it took and not wait for the result of a separate lawsuit by the State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC). It would be even better if the state converted to a defined contribution pension system and thereby removed one source of temptation for future governors and legislators to ignore the constitution.
In the meantime, I will continue to wear my flag lapel pin in honor of those last Americans who died because we did not think terrorism could happen here and all those who have died since because we know it can.