Word: roadblockers
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...night is balmy. The highway is lit by a full moon. Suddenly, as the car crests a hill, there it is, just 50 yards ahead, a terrorist roadblock: two small foreign cars, parked across the pavement. With only a second to react, the driver lunges at the emergency brake to lock the rear wheels, then jams down hard on the brake pedal too. He jerks the steering wheel to the right. The rear of the car twists savagely in a 180° "bootleg" turn...
...brakes again, and just as his car is shuddering to a stop, he slams it into reverse and guns the engine. Seconds later he takes his foot off the gas and turns the steering wheel hard. Tires screaming, the car spins around once more, but is again facing the roadblock. There is no choice now but to pray, step on the gas and try to ram his way through...
...breathless, loses control, can't think. Can't do anything, in fact. Finally he just stops the car. "All you learned just dropped out of your head," Scott chides. The next try is much better. He spins the car into a good J turn, evading a sudden roadblock, and escapes. When Scott concedes that the move was a "reasonable reaction," the student feels as proud as a small boy the first time he manages to stay up on a two-wheeler. Fear turns into exhilaration. He can hardly wait for the next ambush...
Scott advises students "to be suspicious of anything unusual." In the Third World, for example, where official police roadblocks are common, it is not difficult for terrorists to get weapons and government uniforms. But it is hard for them to get police cars. "That could be the tip-off," Scott warns. "Look at the vehicle in the roadblock. In the Middle East or Italy, if a van, baby carriage or wheelchair appears in front of you, you can be statistically assured you are being attacked...
...whatever their motives for coming, they share the problems of most immigrants: finding housing and jobs or vocational and linguistic training. They often cannot speak English--and everywhere these immigrants turn, their language is a roadblock. Cambridge has a bilingual department and bilingual training in its scholls, but it cannot serve every Hispanic in the city. The language barrier prevents many immigrants from obtaining any but the most menial jobs, and hampers their efforts to obtain social services. For several years a coalition of minority groups, including Hispanics, has tried to get interpreters at the Cambridge Hospital, but the hospital...