These security issues on Amtrak are not about race but class. The people milling about the train and street near the train in Salinas were not passengers ready to board or there to meet someone arriving but a underclass that were visibly angry at the display of wealth and privilege that the Coast Starlight represents.

My work and personal life has been spent more in the inner city as down on the farm. One learns regardless of race or class to take cover when an angry crowd gathers.

I sure agree, I have never had a problem one on one anywhere. The problem with people throwing rocks or shooting at a train is: I can't be myself one on one. I am riding in a train that to many is a symbol of a class that others are not a part of.

I have had rocks thrown at me on the Cardinal coming into Chicago. Just not at the train but people aiming and making eye contact with me in the window. The crew have acknowledged that the bullet holes in the windows happened in the same area.