Thursday, May 01, 2003

May Day, Again

The Portland Police were at it again today, arresting and beating up bicyclists at the Critical Mass ride. There have been reports of them arresting bicycle commuters for no apparent reason lately, as well. Just one more reason to watch out for the police, now that they’re little more than political enforcers.

Didn’t Portland get designated as the “Most Bicycle-Friendly City” a couple years ago? Now it seems that bike riding is becoming the latest form of prohibited political speech.

Which leads to…

On Political Speech

Since a seemingly innocent act as riding a bike or stepping off a curb is now political speech, it’s time to think about what you are saying. You say something everytime you buy or do something.

You make choices.

They have consequences.

I ride a bike to work as often as I can, so as to not drive the car. It’s good for my health and for the health of the planet. Every day I ride, it’s that much less greenhouse gases dumped into the air we all breathe. It’s using that much less gasoline that the assholes who took over the government of this country feel compelled to go to war for. I average 12000 miles a year on the car, well under the national average of 17,000+ miles a year.

Go take the “Ecological Footprint” test and see how you do, compared to the average American family. It measures how much you consume, measured in terms of how many acres of land it takes to support your lifestyle. We “use” 17.3 acres a year, versus the American 25.2 average. Sounded good, until I saw that the world average is 5.6.

Which leads to…

Inequity and Inequality

The richest fifth of the world’s people consumes 86 percent of all goods and services while the poorest fifth consumes just 1.3 percent. Indeed, the richest fifth consumes 45 percent of all meat and fish, 58 percent of all energy used and 84 percent of all paper, has 74 percent of all telephone lines and owns 87 percent of all vehicles.

The three richest people in the world have assets that exceed the combined gross domestic product of the 48 least developed countries.

The world’s 225 richest individuals, of whom 60 are Americans with total assets of $311 billion, have a combined wealth of over $1 trillion—equal to the annual income of the poorest 47 percent of the entire world’s population.

It is estimated that the additional cost of achieving and maintaining universal access to basic education for all, basic health care for all, reproductive health care for all women, adequate food for all and clean water and safe sewers for all is roughly $40 billion a year—or less than 4 percent of the combined wealth of the 225 richest people in the world. (source, United Nations)

So next time you think you “need” that new SUV, remember - you make choices, they have consequences…