Secretary of Transportaion Buttigieg: “What these airlines need is some kind of oversight, some sort of regulatory agency to make sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to do to prevent these kinds of disasters, headed by someone with the backbone to use his or her authority when necessary. But until such an agency and such a person exist, please accept these winter blossoms as a memorial for what you endured this holiday season.”

Southwest Airlines left over a million passengers stranded over the Christmas holiday, thanks to a combination of terrible weather, even more terrible management and systems updates, and a government so hands off it might as well have been on vacation in Portugal. And anyone unlucky enough to find themselves in San Diego Airport’s Terminal 2 could not have been blamed for thinking that at least half of those million stranded souls was stuck right here in America’s Finest City. Hours stretched into days, with no relief in sight. But then, on December 28, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg appeared on the news to say that Southwest’s system had melted down and that “they’re going to be responsible to us.” And just one week later, he put actions behind his words, paying a visit to that self-same Terminal 2 and laying down a bouquet of flowers on the floor that was for so long the sight of miserable crowds of homesick travelers. Speaking to reporters at the event, Buttigieg noted that “while these brief blooms cannot fully compensate for the suffering of so many Americans, it’s all they’re going to get from me. I’m not the President, after all — not yet, anyway — so there really isn’t anything more I can do without repercussions. But I should note that I did make Southwest pay for the flowers.”