Freedom

I got home from Florida to hear about a group from Oldham County that hates cyclist. There was a group of 25 of them on facebook. The discussions were on how they were going to hit cyclist with doors or just their entire cars. From what I gather the authorities got involved and now the group is no longer on facebook.

I find the whole thing both very funny and educational.

Funny from the fact that there are a bunch of people who want to threaten violence against me on a computer. That takes so much courage. Then the violence they want to do is from inside a vehicle. They don't even want to stand toe to toe with a cyclist. When I was younger I would be embarassed to even claim I would have to hit some guy with spandex and shaved legs with a car. I may have hit them with the car and then claimed to have beat the shit out of them to guard my ego. These kids needed a beating, but it should have come from their parents years ago. I am fourty years old and if I posted threats on the computer my mother would try to beat my ass to this day.

When I was younger fighting was not that big of a deal. Most boys had been in a few. As for myself I won some and lost a few. We always came up with some good excuse, but mostly it was all about egos, entertainment, or boredom. It was common to be in a fight and have 100 people gathered around to watch. If you think that sounds a little redneck you would be right. Even in that day of violence we would never hit someone from the rear in a car. We just had a little more pride than that. These kids are not even tough enough or proud enough to even claim they would face their targets. I can not even think of a name to call these people. Pussy comes to mind, but most of the people I have met that I consider pussies would laugh at these people.

As I got to thinking a little more about it I thought about the learning opportunity that comes from it. Here is one of those points that gets very political, so be prepared to be offended.

We all know there is a large portion of the population who really do not like sharing the road with cyclist. Hell my best friend is one of them. Many of these people have some stupid views that cyclist do not pay taxes. Cyclist are not a very large portion of the population. These things combined make us targets not only to punk kids, but to adults and politicians.

Take a look at what goes on in the world. The governor of California has proposed to tax everything associated with golf. If you don't believe it google golf tax. That is every ball, club, round, cart fee, club membership ect. The only people I have seen complaining about it are those who play or make a living off golf.

The philosophy is that more people don't play golf than those that do. The people it does not affect will stand by and do nothing or even be in favor of it, because we all know only rich people play golf and they need to have it stuck to them.

This plays over time and time again. Think about the following.

There are more poor and middle class people than rich. Taxing the rich is no problem or even deserved because it is somebody else.

We love luxury taxes or sin taxes because they are aimed at someone else.

People who have no assault rifle think they should be banned or don't care. Assault rifles account for 1/5 of one percent of violent crime. Less than knives. They only account for one percent of gun crime. There is that little thing called the second amendment. None of these facts matter just that somebody is getting stuck.

We have come to hate smokers so bad that we don't even want them to smoke outside. I was timing a race in Virgina and there was someone standing byside my gas powered generator smoking. A spectator 20 yards away walked up and complained that the smoke was bothering them. Not the exhaust from the generator, but the smoke. More people don't smoke than those that do.

I am sure you can come up with any number of your own examples. You are more than likely guilty of some of these. We don't care about restricting freedom, taking from people, destrying entire industries. We only cheer when people get screwed that we are told deserve it.

What do you do when these same people come after you. If many people think you don't pay taxes and they can point out that some bikes cost $2,000, $4,000 or even more how much trouble would they have getting people to back them in taxing you or passing restrictions on what you do. They could use the money to improve roads that you use but don't pay for now. Even better there are thousands of children injured in bike accidents each year and some of these kids have no insurance, so the money could be used there. Any of this sound like familiar logic used before. Those that are not on board are not going to stand up for you. Why should they stand for your freedom? Nobody stands up for theirs.

I have shot in competition and I have raced bicycles. For the sake of an example lets assume that I shot but did not race.

Laws are passed which infringe on my second ammendment rights or I am taxed for every round I fire. You either love that it was done to me or don't care. When they come after you to get some more money or to limit where you can ride why the hell should I care. My shooting has never caused you any problems, but I have had to slow down for you on the road. I can even see why someone may want to run you over.

The point is if we do not stand together to protect everyones freedom even when it does not concern us there will be nobody there to stand with us when we need it.