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Cynthetiq · 04-19-2005, 08:18 AM

Quote:

If this group is involved, it's a really bad sign
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Published April 14, 2005

As Illinois politicians wheedle for an income tax increase to help grow the government payroll, a reader of this column, Scott Broehl, wrote me a letter.

His was a fascinating story about how government works, or doesn't.

It involves the Illinois Adopt A Highway program, one of the million--or is that 10 million?--government programs. This involves a road in Arlington Heights and a group that should be barred from adopting anything, even a chunk of asphalt.

"I couldn't believe it," Broehl, a retired homicide detective, told me Wednesday. "All these politicians are grandstanding. They grandstand on everything. But then this happens.

"So the other day I'm out there on Golf Road and I see the Adopt A Highway sign. It's a state sign. And I see the name of the group that adopted the highway. They let these people adopt highways? It's sick. So I took a photograph and sent it to you."

Until we started asking questions about the Adopt A Highway program, this is how it worked: You applied to the Illinois Department of Transportation, it gave you a stretch of highway to clean up as a highway volunteer and provided plastic litter bags for cleanup and safety vests.

In exchange, the adopters received recognition in the form of a state highway sign, planted right there on their adopted 2-mile chunk of highway, for all drivers to see. There were more than 10,200 individuals in about 1,700 various groups having adopted around 3,400 miles of highway.

"That's all changed now. We're suspending the program and we're going to have to study this," said Tim Martin, the director of IDOT. "I can't believe it either. I'm sick about it. I can tell you I lost my cool. I have a temper. And I don't think the governor will be pleased, either."

Here's what was on the sign photographed by Scott Broehl.

First, there was the IDOT logo, and "ADOPT A HIGHWAY" in big letters. Then the name of a fellow named Kevin. I'm withholding the last name because we couldn't reach him. Given what the organization under his name stands for, I think you'll understand.

The name of the organization that adopted the highway was also in big letters. Here it is.

"NAMBLA INC."

Then it said, "KEEP ILLINOIS CLEAN."

Seeing the NAMBLA name up there irritated Broehl. He served on police departments in the northwest suburbs until he left to become a homicide detective in Atlanta. Cops know what it stands for.

NAMBLA stands for the North American Man-Boy Love Association. According to news articles and the group's Web site, it advocates changing those old-fashioned laws about sex with minors, including very young kids. It advocates pedophilia.

The only time pedophiles should be cleaning highways is when they are accompanied by prison guards and wearing leg-irons and bright orange uniforms. Pedophiles should never be released from prison. They can't be rehabilitated. There's something inside them beyond repair.

But there they were on the highway--NAMBLA and KEEP ILLINOIS CLEAN.

"Our politicians all jumped to get publicity on that registered sex-offender law," Broehl said, "even if the list includes some kid who was 17 and had sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend after school, he's a sex offender. The politicians were all over it. But NAMBLA gets to adopt a highway. Fantastic."

A call to IDOT had the usual effect, involving suspicion, paranoia and general agita. There's a reason for that. Some of the IDOT guys know me from their City Hall days, when they worked for Anthony Pucillo, the boss of the city's Department of Transportation.

Department officials said that Martin erupted with much anger and yelling in a meeting on Wednesday, in which he ordered the sign removed, and for it never to be put up again upon severe penalty, which may include a left hook to the head, but definitely would include firing.

At an IDOT meeting, Martin said, one official told him that legally, NAMBLA might have the right to the sign, given a recent court case in Missouri in which the Ku Klux Klan retained its name on a similar adopt-a-highway sign on 1st Amendment grounds.

Martin called the official a lunatic and demanded a full review of the program. He also spoke in French to make himself perfectly clear.

"I've heard about the KKK in Missouri, but let me tell you, we won't have NAMBLA signs on Illinois highways," Martin told me. "They can sue. But there won't be any NAMBLA signs."

The state is investigating who exactly applied for the sign, whether it was NAMBLA or whether it was a prankster.

In its review, IDOT is going over all the signs and applications to determine if other offensive groups or names beautify the state highways, and to decide whether to kill the program outright. Martin promised to tell me if he finds any more offensive signs. But just in case he doesn't, and you see one, let me know.

such a slippery slope we live on. personally, NAMBLA as a group to me doesn't warrant anything positive. It doesn't do anything to help generate positive force within the communities it exists. But since the criteria for adopting a highway is pretty succinct and straightforward, then what's the difference of me putting up something like, USA2World UFIA, Inc.?