{"id":455,"date":"2006-03-07T14:24:37","date_gmt":"2006-03-07T14:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hostkabob.com\/vote\/?p=455"},"modified":"2006-03-07T14:24:37","modified_gmt":"2006-03-07T14:24:37","slug":"3706","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/?p=455","title":{"rendered":"3\/7\/06"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re in Tehachapi, California, some 4,000 ft above sea level in the Tehachapi Mountains. Today while out jogging on Hwy 202, I was stopped by the scene of a white cross and some flowers by the side of the road. On the cross it said: “Daddy.” <\/strong>Below was a stick-on heart with the words: “I had a good Valentine’s Day this year Dad. I’m thinking about you…” Apparently this girl comes here to where her Dad was killed on the road to leave him regular messages about the events of her life. How tragic that we’ve set up a transportation system in America that is so dangerous (33,000 deaths a year on American roads). I couldn’t help but wonder how many children are growing up without ‘Daddys,’ without ‘Mommys,’ to share the moments of their lives because we’ve, without a lot of prayerful thought or discernment, simply wanted to be more mobile. And we often drive by these roadside crosses with hardly a thought — unless of course it’s happened to one of our ‘Daddys,’ or relatives, or friends… Note:<\/strong> Interesting timing… a bicycling enthusiast from Louisville, Kentucky, had e-mailed me yesterday. He liked that we advocate for much more bicycling in the country and he wrote that for him personally bicycling was good for his health, good for the environment, a more responsible, and frugal, purchase… What’s more, with greenhouse gas and carcinongen emissions from cars, the potential for fatal accidents, and so on… this man wondered: W.W.J.D.? That is: “What Would Jesus Drive?”… And more interesting (and tragic) timing… The day after I wrote all this, the Tehachapi News <\/em>carried a front page article reporting that not more than a quarter mile from the accident site I’d just written about, there had just been another auto accident that claimed two lives and left three others critically injured. Nancy Ramirez (according to the California Highway Patrol) drifted a bit right onto the road’s shoulder, then corrected too far to the left and struck a Caltrans truck head on. Mrs. Ramirez’s 10-year-old daughter was ejected from the car and a third car struck her. She died. The driver of the Caltrans truck, Jackie Ray Aldridge, 51, was pinned behind his steering wheel. He died. Mrs. Ramirez is in critical condition. And her other daughter, Roquel, 6, broke both her legs and suffered a spine injury… Soon, most likely, another cross with another “Daddy” will go up near the accident site. If Mrs. Ramirez doesn’t make it, there will be a cross that says “Mommy.” And yet another that says “Daughter”… Both these accidents happened near the intersection of Hwy 202 and Schout Road. And maybe it’s time we, collectively, ‘SHOUT’ to change the motor vehicle transportation system (to “Walkable Communities,” horse drawn buggies, bicycles, walking…) that is killing us — One Daddy, or Mommy, or daughter… at a time. Note 2: <\/strong> As I mentioned all this during an interview with Carol Holmes, editor of the Tehachapi News,<\/em> she replied that several days after this last accident — there was yet another<\/em> vehicular accident in that same location that had involved two children and left one adult, a grandmother, in critical condition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re in Tehachapi, California, some 4,000 ft above sea level in the Tehachapi Mountains. Today while out jogging on Hwy 202, I was stopped by the scene of a white cross and some flowers by the side of the road. …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voteforjoeblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}