MARK SMITH MORE COLUMNS Advertisement

For a couple of weeks now, a scurrilous excerpt from a so-called "white pride" Web site has made its unfortunate, low-life way around Pahrump.

The excerpt is signed by a William Kohbarger with a home address of Port Clinton, Ohio.

That happens to be the place where at one time Bill Kohbarger of Pahrump, the town manager, lived.

But it isn't Pahrump's Bill Kohbarger who wrote the piece.

The writer was his late father.

In brief, the piece is an execrable diatribe against blacks and Mexicans, and a short passage from it will suffice:

"I think it is time for the White's [sic] and others to tell your race and the Mexicans enough is enough, this is going to stop .... also when did any of your people ever become citizens of the United States of American [sic], I can't find any before the war."

It is the kind of light summer reading the average dumb Ku Kluxer would love, the sort of stupidity anyone with a grain of primate consciousness would ball up and toss into the garbage.

"I saw this for the first time two months ago," Kohbarger told me soon after I e-mailed him the piece. "My wife found it on line. It's my father."

Apparently the elder Kohbarger had died some time ago, and Bill's wife was looking for something about memorial services.

Kohbarger made it clear that he has no use for the sentiments expressed by his late dad and even employed a scatalogical term to describe it.

"I've nothing to do with this," he said, and the term he employed to describe his father's writing made it clear that he has no use for it at all.

The sad thing is that certain Pahrumpians will ignore this column and spend the next several years convinced Bill is a raving lunatic racist who, on general principles, should be chained up and neutered. That's what happens when stuff like this gets started.

My conversation with Bill was short. Aside from learning that his father had written the screed, what do you say? "How racist was your dad, Bill?" The elder Kohbarger is gone, he has no influence on his son, I've never seen evidence of any sort that Bill harbors feelings of dislike or distrust for blacks or Latinos, and as far as I'm concerned, that's that. Period.

This story is closed.

* * *

I've been thinking about the lower speed now called for along Route 159 by Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and what it really means to the average driver.

My opinion: not much.

Don't get me wrong. It irritates me no end that the bicyclists apparently managed to shove this through the Legislature. It irritates me every time I see a bicyclist in the bike lane hugging the "fog line" at the edge of the vehicle lane when the whole bike lane is available. So much for safety considerations. But you can bet whenever a bicyclist gets hurt or killed, it will be the driver of the motor vehicle who faces charges.

That's what happens when you mount a campaign about something and take the time to work it for all it's worth.

But then I also think, does this come as a big surprise?

As a driver who does the Red Rock drive between 160 and West Charleston roughly once a week, I know as well as the rest of you that there were already plenty of other drivers who crept along the 60 mph stretch at 50 or even 45 mph long before now.

And I also wonder, how many drivers never squeak past 60 mph, or inch above 45 mph between the 215 and the end of civilization below Red Rock?

So anyway, I did some passes between 160 and West Charleston this past week, just to see what the differences were if I went one way or the other, and here are the results:

* On a trip into and one out from the 215, the one "in" took 20-21 minutes. The way back it also took exactly the same length of time.

* On the way in to the 215 from the junction of Route 160 and Durango, it took 21 minutes.

* On the way in to the 215 from the junction of Route 160 and Rainbow, it took 24 minutes.

In other words, there was about a five-minute difference among the three likeliest candidates for access to the 215 where it crosses West Charleston, or not a heck of a big deal.

Even if you traveled at 60 mph, the distance along the road from 160 to West Charleston is all of 15.7 miles.

Which means that, obeying the speed limit (and we know we all do that, don't we?), it would take you 16 minutes by the shortest route.

Now admittedly, I chose times and days when there wasn't a lot of traffic, but I think most people would agree that whether you're going by Red Rock or up Durango or up Rainbow, if it's rush hour you're going to run into much the same thing in any case.

And who is putting all those cars and pickups and SUVs on the road by Red Rock? Simple -- people who live in Pahrump. Seems to me it's our traffic.

I guess in the end I can only quote what any number of officials and law enforcement officers have said in different places about similar situations: If you know you have to get somewhere by a certain time, then leave a little earlier.

But in the end, I have to note today's drive, from West Charleston out to Route 160.

All went well, a few cars at mid-afternoon, except for one Jeep that passed a few of us at a good 60 mph (we were creeping along at 50 and he cruised by in jig time).

Strapped to the back of the Jeep?

A 10-speed racing bike.

So much for bicyclists who had the speed limit lowered for their own safety.