this is from my friend Kira, not my words, hers (and they're damn fine):
I wanted to post to your blog, but alas, I'm blocked for my bloggerless state. On the thread of critical mass,
We need this. I'm tired of my Dad getting hit by hypocrite vegan automobilists on his daily bikeride to work. My brother just got creamed by a car biking on Capitol Hill, Seattle. My friend Evan Burke died this weekend when he was hit by a taxi on his longboard. As if that wasn't an outrage enough, the Ashland Daily Tidings was quick to point out that HE hit the moving car (not the other way around), while possibly drunk/high (speculation), while not wearing a "required helmet", or sporting a front light and rear reflector on his deck.
The reporting officer's take was something along the lines of, "well, it's a tragedy, but at least it brings to light the precautions that skateboarders must take." Are you serious? Evan was travelling UPHILL (and hills in A-town are steep) when he was hit (or hit the car, according to the ADT). F=ma, and the force of a skateboard operated by a 150-lb 21 year old, travelling uphill, doesn't equal a deadly accident. However, the force of a taxi, even at low speed, certainly does.
I'm not discounting the effectiveness/necessity of helmets, or headlamps, or reflectors. But not only was NO MENTION made of the dangerousness of vehicles, the article specifically pointed out that the driver was "not to blame."
Evan was one less goddamn car on the road - and he paid for it. The revolution will not be motorized, okay, but it's one hell of a dangerous jungle out there for pedestrians, bicyclists and boarders - unfairly so. We're less than 10% of the population of America, can you believe it? Aren't auto-accidents the leading cause of death? And America's need for cars just leads to oil wars - more lives taken. Throw in sleepy motorists mowing down the alternatively-powered crowd and goddamn -
don't give me some bullshit about how a rear reflector and a headlamp could have fixed all of this.
Sorry, had to vent somewhere that might understand. Maybe you could digest/post for me - cool. Hey...be careful.
more on critical mass
broccoli for life
I'm not kidding. Broccoli for life. Last night, on the way home I found about fifteen pounds of broccoli. Took it home and washed it, put it in a garbage bag in the freezer. Steamed a bit up to go with some rice too. Anybody got any good broccoli recipes?
Colorado University President Resigns
CU's president just resigned over two issues, (NY Times Article) one her football team uses pot, booze and sex to recruit other members, and the other, an outspoken activist professor on her campus compared victims of sept. 11th to Adolph Eicmann, the Nazi leader who created the systematic methods of exterminating jews in the Holocaust.
Personally, I don't see what the problem is. I haven't found a college football team yet that is succsessful and isn't mired in scandal. You give anyone that much money and fame and what do you think they're going to spend it on? So far nine women have filed complaints against members of the football team. If you ask me, CU needs to rethink whether it wants to continue having a football team. You get a bunch of guys to run around smacking the shit out of eachother, you're going to see the academic climate on campus deteriorate, to say the least.
And secondly, more importantly, what the hell is going on with Ward Churchilll? Doesn't CU see that he is one of the best things they have going for them? He's an outspoken, intelligent, internationallly recognized native american activist. The general take is you don't compare victims of a crime to Nazis, that's wrong. Bull shit. The victims of the September 11th l worked in the world trade center (most of them), a cluster of organizations that Churchill has written are tied to systems of modern day genocide, systematically depraving third world countries and chasing the buck as the almighty measure of worth, the ultimate cost-benefit analysis. Firing Churchill for making this obvious comparison would be like firing Oppenheim for suggesting that it might not have been a good idea to make the atomic bomb. A University, like the Manhatten project, without critical minds constantly questioning becomes a breeding ground for oppression. In the case of The Manhatten project, when none of the scientists spoke their concerns, they made a two bombs for the US government under the premise that the bombs would be used to defeat the Nazis. But when the Nazis were defeated and the Government told the scientists to keep working, none of the scientists said anything or questioned their motivations.
At a university, when a professor suggests that American culture harms the rest of the world, it should be brought onto the table and discussed, but instead, our reaction is to express disgust and outrage, remove any element of inquiry, and immediately stiffle the outspoken. Universities have become nothing more than job training programs, where little rats grow up to become big rats, running on a wheel that fires the kiln that burns the bodies we generate in our holocaust.