~For Whom the Toll Roads~

Captains Log, High Noon

The Skacciabong ( 'Ska-Shuh-Bong', official RV flagship of the Ocean Outfall
Group) was moored at KOA campground in Chula Vista, dug in for the battle to stop
sewage dumping in San Diego, but it was time to untie the lines and head out early
for the Del Mar Fairgrounds where another battle was about to unfold.

We wound the hoses and electric cords, raised the stabilizers, checked solar power
instrument panels, retracted slides, topped off some of the tanks and emptied
others.

Then I yelled to the first mate:

"Batton hatches above."

"Aye" came the reply.

"Ice chest full of foods and beer?"

"Aye!"

"Head count of doggies?"

"Aye!"

"Biodiesel full?"

"Aye!"

"We're underway!"


The Cummins Diesel sang a gritty song as we headed north on the 5 Interstate for
what promised to be a contentious meeting between developers who want a toll road
built through the State Park at San Onofre, and a crew of altruistic electeds, like
Pedro Nava and Christine Keyhoe, ready to go to the mat for the California way of
life.

The evil Transportation Corridor Agency had hired a professional biostitute from
Scripps Marine Institute to play pretend with science and the health of our children
and precious coastal resources, but no one was fooled.

To paraphrase the ol' 'Gipper', "You seen one toll road through a State Park ya seen
'em all."

Captains Log, 1:17 PM

Have you ever heard the story about Arithmetical Progression? It's like Geometric
Progression, only worse- you get more houses. Case in point; when the kids were
finally unchained from the bulldozers and the San Juaquin Toll Road was allowed to
be built, it almost immediately resulted in row upon row of cookie-cutter homes
along its length, along with Flour Corporation HQ, UPS and a few other corporate
HQ's.

That's what happens when you build a road through the wild. You lose the wild. And
so it will be if the Foothill South Toll Road Extension is allowed to be built.
Truth be known, that 'Arithmetical Progression' is the only reason this Toll Road is
proposed at all- development. Just like Desalination, it's only for development.

Bigger scale- the World Bank, and US 'Aid'- development.

This battle has been a long and interesting one. It has come to a point where the
Federal Government, in the form of NOAA, wants to over rule the California Coastal
Commission, who recently and courageously voted a resounding 'NO' to this
desecration of Native land and the dangerous precedent a Toll Road through a State
Park would set.

Predictably, the Federal Government (ie: developers) are playing the 'NS'
card- National Security. They are saying the Toll Road should be allowed to go
forward because it would ease mobility for Marines, etc.

The Ocean Outfall Group feels the Marines have jets, tanks, trucks, planes and
missiles. It's the mobility of the Steelhead in San Mateo Creek we're worried
about, the mobility of a hard-working inland father who needs a healthy, clean and
quiet park where he can bring his kids. This is sacred land to Native Americans of
the area and certainly sacred ground for the surf culture of California- a place
worth saving!


Captains Log, 2:30 PM

We pulled into Del Mar at high noon with 24 hours to spare, the Skacciabong prowling
through the back lots like a Jaguar seeking fresh Tapir. We piloted into the
rear-most lot behind the O'brien Center and set up shop. In minutes we were
indistinguishable from the landscape and our dogs were fighting swift
estuarine currents. A train powered across a trestle nearby our salty oasis, and our
transition was complete. From San Diego sewage fighters to Toll-Road Terminators!

Time: 10:30am
Place: Obrien Building, Del Mar Fairgrounds
What: NOAA meeting on the proposed Foothill South Toll Road Extension
Why: Because a California State Park is no place for a private Toll Road!


~For Whom, epilogue~

Now it was time to wait and see- to see For Whom the Toll Roads.


joey racano ESM



~For Whom the Toll Roads, Part Two~


Del Mar, California

On the morning of September 22nd, silence lay draped across our camp like a
hand-knitted Afghan. Across the salty canal, approaching dog-walkers sent
large squawking birds airborne before them.

"Look!" I said, pointing a finger at the southern horizon, where three colorful
hot-air balloons took flight one-by-one. The sun shone early-morning bright on them
as they rose impossibly high.

But just as I poured strong coffee into a 'French Press', an ominous sound of hollow
metal ground away the silence behind us. It was the sound of large metal doors being
forced open, skreeching for want of oil. I stepped into a cold shower and thought no
more of it.

Through a din of cascading water, I heard the sound of barking- not of the few
dogs whose company we enjoy, but of many barking dogs, raising a canine cacaphony
before the strike of 7:00a.m. I stepped from the shower to see some ten canine
units and 30 other sheriffs squad cars being barkingly hustled into the Del Mar
Fairgrounds 'Exhibition Building', where, mercifully, most were to remain.

Covering the Toll Road meeting with an ESM press pass, it was a photo of these units
I wanted most, but in the end, was afraid to take. And there they stayed until it
was all over, hiding in a secret building such a vulgar display of resistance from
the sandy-haired children here to defend San Onofre State Park and, suprisingly, the
California Coastal Commission.


Obrien Hall

I must have been a sight, hobbling in on a cane due to a torn something-or-other in
my knee. Too many trips up and down the hill to fill my Finch feeder back in Morro
Bay and a few too many pounds. And though I had worn a dark suit with a conservative
red tie, I had traded in the flag lapel pin for a State Flag of California, for this
was truly a fight between the Federales and the Republic.

After paving and filling everything they could on the first pass through, the
developers -with balls of steel- were here to take our State Park!

"...And so I ask you today", jerk after orange-shirted jerk would say, .."to
overrule the California Coastal Commission and let us build this (privately owned
toll) road through San Onofre State Park".

"Boooo!" came the response from a thousand green-shirts across the aisle, thumbs
pointed down at the thought of it.




The Villians


As the speakers droned on plagued (on purpose, I am certain) with horrible acoustics
reminiscent of a night spent in jail, three cold clay figurines sat at a table up
front, horrified themselves, I'm also certain, at the Kangaroo Court over which
they had been fated to preside.

Like a juggernaut, throngs of heavily muscled orange-shirted construction
contractors bellowed pro-development slogans in scary unison. I was sure it was 1939
Germany. They raised their hands in perfect synchronicity, hoping to rape the
natural world with brute force to make a payment on a second car.

Perhaps the only thing more revolting were their many heavily made-up young
girls smarming around at the beck and call of the Transportation Corridor Agency.
They represented the very worst of a 'me' generation whose time, hopefully, will be
short-lived.

I walked up to one and said, "So beautiful...and yet so deadly!"

"What do you mean?", she asked.

"Such a pretty little girl", I said- "why do you want to kill the world?"

She was whisked quickly away by an older woman who had long ago sold her soul.

Not far away, the opposite extreme; several gorgeous models from 'Reef' Clothing
were making their own appearance to save the park, and their beauty shone from
within.

I went forward to photograph the man from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration). NOAA was in charge of the meeting because they serve under the
auspices of the Department of Commerce.

"No!" he cried aloud. "I don't want any pictures!" he said, running out of the frame.

'CLICK!'


The Heroes

Suit, tie, glasses, briefcase, yellow media pass, a camera and a cane, I hobbled up
to the second row to get off my knee and onto a chair, and there sat a sight for
sore eyes.

Sitting side-by-side were the heroes and heroines the kids were looking for- Susan
Jordan, who was instrumental in stopping the dangerous LNG terminal in Long Beach,
Treasurer and former Attorney General of California Bill Lockyer who had authored a
bill to stop such a Toll Road, and Senator Christine Keyhoe, whose environmental
ethic and integrity are so important to San Diego.

As they arose, one after another to address the panel, their words were partly
drowned out by the thunderous roar from a large adoring crowd; a thousand emerald
shirts swaying, the cavernous room called O'brien Hall shaking and the bad guys
quaking!


The Scene Outside

Under brightly hued tents outside the hall, free shirts, buttons and lunch were
available if you signed petitions to stop the Toll Road. I signed as many as I
could, blabbed leftist propaganda into about 20 microphones and finally caught up
with Friends of the Foothills organizer Robin Everett sitting on the ground chomping
an apple. I thanked her for her fantastic work and hobbled back to the Skacciabong.

Toll Roads, epilogue...

This is a story whose ending is yet to be written, but it is not a new story by any
means. It is a classic battle between good and evil, dark and light, greed and
simplicity. Thanks to the amount of young, fresh creative caring people, the dragon
may not in the end be slain; but rather, nurtured, rehabilitated, and released
into its natural environment.

For EarthSourceMedia

joey racano



EarthSourceMedia
http://www.EarthSourceMedia.org
'Speak truth to youth!'