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<P>Anne is absolutely correct. </P>
<P>I find it helpful, as a bullshit check, to ask whether a group of cars would be treated differently if they did what cyclists do.</P>
<P>For example, when I take the lane on a one lane street and ride for several blocks at about 15mph, cars behind me get pissed. Of course, when I'm driving and I'm stuck for several blocks behind an old lady who's going 15mph, I get pissed too. That's why the courteous thing to do when you're riding is let cars go by when it becomes safe.</P>
<P>Likewise, if a bunch of cars decided to drive down Memorial Drive at about 10-12 mph and block both lanes (as CM has done), the people behind them would get mad. They'd get mad because they've had a long day at work and want to get home, and there's a bunch of people in their way for (to them) no apparent reason.</P>
<P>I strongly believe our country would be a better place if more people rode bikes than drove cars, and if public policy more effectively supported this end.<BR><BR>But I've met a lot of people on CM who act as though cyclists are an oppressed minority. Cyclists are not oppressed because they are cyclists. They do have to make compromises that other vehicles don't have to make, and don't have certain privivleges other vehicles have. And that's what we should work to change.</P>
<P>But assuming the mantle of an oppressed minority makes us seem ridiculous, rather than bringing us closer to our true goals.<BR><BR></P></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>>From: Anne Wolfe <goannego@yahoo.com>
<DIV></DIV>>Reply-To: goannego@yahoo.com,Boston Critical Mass <list@bostoncriticalmass.org>
<DIV></DIV>>To: Boston Critical Mass <list@bostoncriticalmass.org>
<DIV></DIV>>Subject: Re: [*BCM*] Martin Luther King would like to comment on CM.
<DIV></DIV>>Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2005 14:41:18 -0800 (PST)
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<DIV></DIV>>turtle <turtle@zworg.com> wrote:
<DIV></DIV>>"... but the more important issue is that the police
<DIV></DIV>>are using the "parade" law as an excuse to harass bicyclists off of
<DIV></DIV>>public streets, and to discriminate against a minority."
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<DIV></DIV>>Um, actually no they're not. MLK and his group were denied parade permits because they were black. Were CM to apply for a permit and have it denied because of who they were, then the law would be being applied unfairly and the police would be using the law as an excuse to harass bicylists off public streets and discriminate against a minority. What the police are doing now is enforcing the law against people who don't have a permit to parade, and not just CM. CM is certainly being affected, but it isn't just them. Random cyclists just pedaling throughout Manhattan aren't being arrested for parading without a permit, and I have yet to hear of them being discriminated against or being harrassed off the streets. CM on the other hand, has been informed of the law, is intentionally flouting it, and then saying it is unfair if they get caught or harrassed.
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<DIV></DIV>>Since according to this: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/03/03/testimony_begins_in_suit_by_cyclist_arrested_in_2001/ from today's Globe, CM (and I have to say this made me giggle bearing in mind what I've heard hear in the past couple of years) is a "national group of bicycle advocates who try to ''win motorists over to the idea that on a bicycle you can travel faster than a car." maybe CM needs to either a) fall into line on the parade law or b) get their civil disobedience into better order.
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<DIV></DIV>>Um, ac
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<DIV></DIV>>-------------------------------------------------
<DIV></DIV>>"When the going gets tough, the tough get weird." - R.I.P. Hunter S. Thompson
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<DIV></DIV>>goannego.com - for the latest in where she's gone this time
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