Roadside Crosses

justified. Chilton wrote that he was adamantly against abortion, but condemned Fisk for the statement. Two of Fisk’s defenders, CrimsoninChrist and LukeB1734, viciously attacked Chilton. The former said the blogger himself should be crucified. With the reference to the color in his name, Dance wondered if CrimsoninChrist was the minister’s large, redheaded bodyguard she’d seen earlier at the hospital protest.
    The “Power to the People” thread was an exposé about a California state representative—Brandon Klevinger, who was head of the Nuclear Facilities Planning Committee. Chilton had found out that Klevinger had gone on a golfing junket with a developer who was proposing a new nuclear plant near Mendocino, when it would have been cheaper and more efficient to build it closer to Sacramento.
    In “Desalinate . . . and Devastate” the blogger took on a plan to build a desalination plant near the Carmel River. The comment included a personal attack on the man behind the project, Arnold Brubaker, painted by Chilton as an interloper from Scottsdale, Arizona, a man with a sketchy past and possible underworld connections.
    Two of the postings represented the citizens’ two positions on the desalination issue.
    Reply to Chilton, posted by Lyndon Strickland.
    I have to say you’ve opened my eyes on this issue. Had no idea that somebody’s ramrodding this through. I reviewed the filed proposal at the County Planning Office and must say that, though I am an attorney familiar with environmental issues, it was one of the most obfuscatory documents I’ve ever tried to wade through. I think we need considerably more transparency in order to have meaningful debate on this matter.
    Reply to Chilton, posted by Howard Skelton.
    Do you know that America will run out of freshwater by 2023? And 97 percent of the earth’s water is salt water. Only an idiot would not take advantage of that. We need desalination for our survival, if we’re to continue to maintain our position as the most productive and efficient country in the world.
    In the “Yellow Brick Road” thread Chilton talked about a project by the state Department of Transportation—Caltrans. A new highway was being built from Highway 1 through Salinas and on to Hollister, through farm country. Chilton was questioning the lightning speed with which the project had been approved, as well as the meandering route, which would benefit some farmers far more than others. He hinted at payoffs.
    Chilton’s social conservative side shone through in “Just Say No,” a thread condemning a proposal for increased sex education in middle schools. (Chilton called for abstinence.) A similar message could be found in “Caught in the Act . . . NOT,” about a married state court judge caught leaving a motel with a youngclerk, half his age. Chilton was incensed at the recent development that the judge had received a wrist slap from the judicial ethics committee. He felt the man should have been removed from the bench and disbarred.
    Kathryn Dance then came to the crucial thread, beneath a sad picture of crosses, flowers and a stuffed animal.
Roadside Crosses
    Posted by Chilton.
    I recently drove past the spot on Highway 1 where two roadside crosses, and some bright bouquets, sit. They marked the site of that terrible accident on June 9, where two girls died following a graduation party. Lives ended . . . and lives of loved ones and friends changed forever.
    I realized that I hadn’t heard much about any police investigation into the crash. I made some calls and found there’d been no arrests. No citations were even issued.
    That struck me as odd. Now, no ticket means a determination that the driver—a high school student, so no names—was not to blame. So then what was the cause of the accident? As I drove along the road I noticed it was windswept and sandy and had no lights or guardrails near the spot where the car veered off the road. A caution sign was weathered and would have been hard to see in the dark (the accident occurred around midnight). There was no drainage; I could see pools of standing water on the shoulder and on the highway itself.
    Why didn’t the police do a thorough accident reconstruction (they have people on staff who do that, I’ve learned)? Why didn’t Caltrans immediately send a team to examine the surface of the road, the grading, the markings? I could find no record of any such examination.
    Maybe the road is as safe as can be