Give Peace a Chance

Trinity River Expedition's Charles Allen was Julia Barton's guide for her Weekend America story over the weekend.

Ten years ago, former Dallas Observer contributor Julia Barton wrote on Salon about the giant ball of flaming space rock that destroyed Dallas -- c'mon, you don't remember NBC's Asteroid? On Saturday, on American Public Media's nationally broadcast Weekend America, she was back at it again -- only, the meteor had been replaced by (what else?) a high-speed toll road along the Trinity River's levees.

And it's a solid, thoughtful public-radio piece from a journalist who grew up in Dallas and is probably as conflicted about tomorrow's vote as most locals who don't spend every waking hour posting to blogs: "One side wants a quiet place to go and look at the river, and feel a little peace," she says after her day trekking down the trinity with guide Charles Allen. "The other side wants a canal for cars and trucks to escape gridlock downtown, and feel a little peace." Peace? Sure, but where's the fun in that? --Robert Wilonsky