Whenever I park my bicycle in a public rack, I am sometimes surprised by the variety of bikes.
Sometimes, though, there’s a bike that, no matter how different the others are from each other, just doesn’t fit, or just sticks out, depending on your point of view.
Lest you think only the Republicans closest to Trump,’in the reddest states, are hostile to cycling, look at the Republican caucus in Oregon’s House of Representatives.
They comprise 24 members of the 60-person chamber. Although they are in a state that includes Portland—nicknamed “Bicycle City”— and where one out of every ten driving-age citizens doesn’t have a license, they want to slash funds for mass transportation and bicycle infrastructure. Moreover, they want to eliminate sales tax for new car buyers but not for bike, or even eBike, customers.
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| Oregon’s House Republicans |
House Republicans say that their actions are in keeping with the Oregon Department of Transportation’s mission of “maintaining safe and reliable roads and bridges.” But, as Jonathan Maus, the editor of Bike Portland notes, they seem to believe that only cars and trucks belong on those roads and bridges, and cyclists and pedestrians don’t have a right to use them safely.
Today marks the beginning of International Bicycle Month, which includes "Bike to Work Days" and other commemorations across the globe.
Today also happens to be May Day. On one hand, it's a mid-Spring festival with roots in ancient agricultural traditions. On the other, it's a celebration of workers' rights known as International Workers Day.
It's terribly ironic that so many workers have chosen, not only in the United States, leaders that are working, covertly or not, to destroy the very rights that their parents and grandparents fought so hard to win. The most insidious erosion of their interests come from politicians--like the Fake Tan Fuhrer--who make vague promises that policies like tariffs will bring jobs back to their home countries. Shuttered textile, steel and auto--and bicycle--plants that have been shuttered won't suddenly open and start churning out their wares--if indeed those plants are still standing. New, more automated, factories will not provide nearly as many jobs. And because more people will be competing for fewer jobs, those positions won't pay as well. Worse yet, those new facilities are likely to be built in "right to work" (Don't you love the Orwellian doublespeak?) where unions are weak or non-existent. Thus, laborers will have fewer benefits and little or no redress if they're hurt or incapacitated as a result of their work.
All of that got me to thinking about how "May Day!" came to be a call of distress on a plane or ship. Why "May Day?" Well, when goods and people crossed oceans on ships, and in the early days of aviation, French was the lingua franca. "M'aider!" is "Help Me!" in that language. To an anglophone, it sounds like "May Day!"
(The Beatles have long been popular in France--even if a certain John Lennon song is all but untranslatable.)
No matter how hard they work, workers need help. So do we, if we want safer streets--and a more welcoming environment overall--for cycling.
