Like many individuals I begin my morning by ingesting espresso and taking within the day’s headlines. (Although in contrast to many individuals I additionally begin my morning with a picket salad bowl filled with Froot Loops and almond milk, served to me by a helper monkey named “Vito II,” in honor of his predecessor.) One of many headlines was from a kind of publications that claims it’s solely factor standing between us and an autocratic dystopia:
When the navy is deployed to quell overwhelmingly peaceable protest, when elected officers of the opposing social gathering are arrested or handcuffed, when pupil activists are jailed and deported, and when a variety of civic establishments – non-profits, regulation companies, universities, information shops, the humanities, the civil service, scientists – are focused and penalized by the federal authorities, it’s arduous to keep away from the conclusion that our core freedoms are disappearing earlier than our eyes – and democracy itself is slipping away.
As a blogger I make use of the same advertising tactic, in that I prefer to always stoke paranoia and worry about an all-electronic battery-powered carbon biking future, all while presenting myself as some kind of freedom fighter as a result of I endorse metal bikes with friction shifters:
That is considerably disingenuous on my half since not solely have I been driving this monstrosity for like a 12 months now, however we’re unlikely to exhaust the availability of metal frames, rim brakes, and mechanical drivetrains anytime quickly, although I’ll say I do have much more religion in the way forward for democracy than I do in the way forward for bicycles.
Anyway, as for the aforementioned media outlet, they’re defending democracy with important tales reminiscent of this one:
He used to really feel that train was “like being a hamster on a wheel,” however now that he’s truly a hamster on a wheel he feels otherwise:
I used to really feel train was a waste of time, like being a hamster on a wheel, spinning and doing little or no. However the advantages of constant train have been fairly wonderful for me. It has helped me to achieve a stage of health the place I really feel much less anxious about going to the gymnasium, however I additionally reap the psychological well being advantages of sticking to a routine and having fun with the aches days after I push myself just a little more durable than earlier than (a masochistic hangover from my rugby days).
After all I’m glad to see that he has discovered a type of train that works for him. As cyclists, we are likely to take train as a right, since our favourite exercise additionally occurs to be not solely a type of train but in addition a mode of transportation, and we’re extraordinarily lucky in that regard. Most individuals should power themselves to train, or else combine it into their standard routine by spinning in entrance of the TV, or strolling on a treadmill at a standing desk, or any variety of methods people within the post-industrial age have managed to kind of trick themselves into health now that they don’t should work the land or flee from saber-tooth tigers, dinosaurs, fire-breathing dragons, and different giant predators:
Appears to me the most recent health pattern will probably be to easily cohabitate with a man-eating predator, making each waking second of your life a wrestle to outlive. Now that’ll preserve you lean and nimble–and make for excellent TikToks!
However as cyclists we don’t have this drawback. No person has to chase us, and we don’t should persuade ourselves to train. If we’ve acquired any free time in any respect we instantly hop on our bikes, whether or not now we have to go someplace or not–and if we don’t we simply trip to nowhere, which isn’t actually all that a lot completely different than sitting there and watching TV. A few of us additionally take satisfaction in the truth that we’re doing one thing wholesome, or not burning gasoline, or not taking over numerous house on the roadway, and generally that satisfaction boils even boils over into smugness–although if we’re trustworthy many people would in all probability preserve driving even when it was demonstrably dangerous for each our well being and the atmosphere. This greater than anything might be the actual distinction between individuals who trip bikes and cyclists: some folks actually do trip primarily for train or as a result of it’s sensible or as a result of they’re attempting to make the world a greater place, however a bicycle owner is mainly only a junkie whose behavior is simply barely much less debilitating.
So whereas as a bicycle owner I can’t assist taking a look at some man frittering away on a spin bike in entrance of the TV and assume to myself, “Hey, you’re midway there, now simply put some goddamn wheels on that factor and get outdoors!,” I do know that’s actually simply the junkie in me speaking. Definitely you possibly can make a powerful argument that he’s the rational one, and you actually can’t blame regular non-junkies for eager to do all their cycling-based workouts inside. Definitely folks exaggerate the risks of biking, however when issues go unsuitable they’ll go actually unsuitable:
Although one of many victims wasn’t even on a motorcycle in any respect, she was simply sitting on a bench:
Police say two girls have been in a stolen blue Chevy, rushing off the Manhattan Bridge. The 23-year-old driver misplaced management, jumped the curb and hit and killed each victims earlier than slamming into an unoccupied police van.
The ladies tried taking off, however have been caught close by. They’re being detained whereas they’re within the hospital.
In the meantime, the driving force had already been charged for an unlicensed hit-and-run and was freed with out bail:
The troubled 23-year-old lady accused in Saturday’s hit-run that killed two folks in Chinatown had been charged in one other horror crash simply three months in the past and freed with out bail, information present.
The suspect, recognized by sources as Autumn Donna Ascencio Romero, was charged with leaving the scene of an accident and driving with out a license within the April 13 Brooklyn crash, which reportedly left a 22-year-old pedestrian with accidents together with to her face and neck.
Thankfully when the Mamdani administration is available in folks with out licenses will not drive recklessly and whereas intoxicated in New York Metropolis since they’ll have entry to free bus rides. And within the unlikely occasion somebody does nonetheless select to interrupt the regulation, the deliberate Division of Group Security will be capable to refer it to the Workplace for Ending Gender Based mostly Violence:
Drawback solved.
After all, primarily based on a few of the information protection it additionally seems like the driving force was mentally in poor health, through which case the Workplace of Group Psychological Well being would handle it–which does sound good, besides that we have already got one, and the place have been they?
Welcome to the New York Metropolis Division of Well being and Psychological Hygiene.
With an annual price range of $1.6 billion and greater than 7,000 workers all through the 5 boroughs, we’re one of many largest public well being businesses on the planet. We’re additionally the nation’s oldest municipal public well being company, with over two centuries of management within the subject.
This looks like having each a Gravel Model Supervisor and a Gravel Product Supervisor, however not less than while you’re sitting on a park bench and a mentally in poor health driver is rushing in direction of you in a stolen Chevy you possibly can ponder this in your remaining moments:
We acknowledge that historic and up to date injustices in authorities, well being care, and different establishments have deepened mistrust and contributed to particular person and collective trauma, whereas exacerbating inequities throughout well being situations.
We acknowledge that Black, Latino, Indigenous, and all folks of coloration proceed to expertise and resist the day by day influence and actuality of years of disinvestment, racism, biased therapy, and oppression.
I understand the above could also be unduly cynical, however at a sure level you possibly can’t assist noticing the one factor that basically adjustments so far as how the town handles this kind of factor is the language through which they select to decorate it.
Talking of catastrophe hanging with out warning, within the feedback to a current publish (sorry, I’m too lazy to lookup when and the place) somebody talked about the hazard of falling bushes, and in direction of the top of my trip yesterday a tree bough got here crashing down in entrance of me:
This isn’t the primary time I’ve skilled this, and actually not too way back after doing a little bike upkeep I used to be taking just a little shakedown trip across the neighborhood once I was clobbered by a fairly sizeable department that simply missed my head and hit me within the shoulder.
Some could level out that that is but one more reason to put on a helmet whereas biking, although by that logic it’s simply as compelling motive to put on a helmet whereas strolling, and I don’t see anybody doing that.
In the end we’re all simply sitting on our personal little benches, come what could.