Bike Newbie

Raging Fires and Heartbreaking Loss

COVID-19 and civil unrest were apparently not enough punishment for my home state. On Monday night and Tuesday of this week, dozens of fires began raging in Oregon, fueled by East winds, hot weather, and some of the driest conditions the normally-damp west side of the state has seen in recorded history. The fires have burned over a million acres so far, and are likely to burn much more before it’s all over. The East wind in my area stopped (finally!) Thursday night, but the smoke still hangs heavy, giving the air quality here a worst-possible Hazardous rating. Everyone is instructed to stay in their homes unless they are evacuating or have necessary travel.

I will not use this blog as a news reporting page. There is a good interactive fire situation map here if you want just the facts: https://linngis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=56668b1f57cf4bec9be88420a37e1183 . Instead, I want to talk about my own connections to each of the places/people impacted by these fires. My family and I are EXTREMELY blessed to not have been evacuated, and I want to make it clear we personally haven’t lost anything, unlike hundreds of thousands in Oregon alone. This post isn’t meant to be a pity party, but simply a reflection on how far-reaching fire impacts can be.

• Alameda Drive Fire (Medford/Ashland area): as part of my job I regularly meet with organizations and businesses in this area. I haven’t checked in yet with my contacts at these places, and probably am still unable to by phone, but looking at the map I’m sure many of these places are evacuated if not burned.
• Archie Creek Fire (Douglas County): this fire threatens the towns of Roseburg and Sutherlin among others, although the only evacuation orders I’ve seen are for Glide. Sutherlin was my mom’s hometown, and I still have dozens of family members in the area.
• Beachie Creek Fire (Marion County): at least one of my coworkers has had to evacuate and will probably lose their home. One of the properties I help manage is about to be burned over (no structures). My dad’s family farm, which we no longer own but visit occasionally, is under a Level 1 evacuation order. Silver Falls State Park, where I went hiking with my dad, sister and nephew just two weeks ago, is burning. Speaking of them, they are in Salem where the smoke is so thick it is dark at noon and has been all week.
• Riverside Fire (Clackamas County): I have countless coworkers and friends in various states of evacuation and loss from this fire. This fire is expected to merge with the Beachie, and that is predicted to make the combined fire more dangerous than just the two fires would be separately. (A large fire that size is capable of creating its own weather events, for example.) All of Clackamas County, a large area by western Oregon standards with a population into the hundreds of thousands, is under some level of evacuation order.
• Echo Mountain Fire (Lincoln City/Otis area): a few of my coworkers either have evacuated or are standing by to evacuate. The one employee I manage, who is much younger than me and fights wildland fire as a side gig, is assigned to a fire engine on this fire. This is on the Oregon Coast, a lush green place that historically only burns about every 200 years (although climate change nullifies that figure), and people here normally do not have to worry about wildfires. The devastation of homes in the Otis and Devil’s Lake areas is heart-wrenching to see. My employee, who has texted me a few photos, says it’s reminiscent of the war zones you see on TV news.

There are numerous other degrees and kinds of impact the fires have had and will have: favorite hiking and biking routes, local economies, etc. But for now, the main thing I’m thinking about is the thousands of people.

Campaigns and Vaccines

With less than 60 days until Election Day, it’s becoming more and more obvious that both sides are pulling out all the stops in their respective campaigns. Now, I’ve never pretended to be politically neutral; I’m a bleeding heart liberal and I’m not afraid to say it. But, that said, it doesn’t take a stone-hearted genius to figure out that many of the recent revelations in the news (Michael Cohen’s book, for example) have been strategically timed to influence voters. I’m not saying it makes the other side correct or morally justified at all, I’m just saying it’s all part of the political game, and it’s bound to get ever more nauseating right up until Nov. 3.

As an American who was in grade school when Ronald Reagan took office, I am very much numb to all the mudslinging, low blows, and “strategery” that go on as part of our proud election process. But when lives hang in the balance, and when people are desperate for some kind of answer to the pandemic that has infected at least 6 million Americans, killed 190,000 of us so far, and kills about 1,000 more each day, the Trump campaign aka the Federal Government has reached a new low. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), once somewhat reputable among the international scientific community but now under direct authority of the White House, has given the misleading and spectacular open instruction to state and local governments to “ready themselves” to distribute a vaccine “as early as October”.

Now, this should be easy enough to identify as a Trump campaign stunt and utter bullshit, for anyone with half a brain who is halfway paying attention to the news. The oh-so-coincidental timing to match that of the Presidential election, combined with the fact that the World Health Organization has approved exactly zero vaccines for distribution (7 are in the large-scale phase 3 trials, but these are exercises with 12+ month timeframes, not a couple or even 6 months long), make it obvious to any normal person that the instruction was meant to influence voters who might have been on the bubble, and not a necessary mandate for that particular timeframe.

But these are not normal times. People are tired, desperate for an end to COVID-19, and most importantly, fearful and hungry. They are simultaneously hungry for a return to the maskless, crowd-friendly “normal” world and fearful that there won’t be any such return. They don’t want to accept that change is happening, some of the change is permanent, and most of the change is actually the right thing to do. The Trump campaign aka the Federal Government gives people an outlet for their hunger and their fear of change through ridiculous announcements like the CDC’s.

Some people may ask, “What’s the harm in this?” Some may point out that it’s never a bad idea to be ready, and that people are free to read into the CDC’s instructions whatever they want to. But with COVID-19, misinformation carries a huge potential for deadly harm. People in this country are already in denial and resisting state orders to wear masks and practice social distancing. If they are led to believe a vaccine is right around the corner, they will be even less likely to practice prevention, and much more likely to spread the virus at accelerating rates.

People are tired and scared, but they need to hear the truth. Science. They need to hear that despite how much the Federal Government has failed them wearing masks works. Staying at home works. Distancing works. There will be a vaccine but not this year. Until 200+ million Americans get vaccinated we need to flatten the curve by doing the things that work, not by buying into baseless belief in some quick fix.

Bike Challenges, Bike Victories

Well, I didn’t mean to, but I kind of skipped over August entirely. That’s probably all right, because news-wise it was not pretty. I won’t dwell on news in this post, unless you count my own personal news (which I don’t).

In my home I keep three bicycles: a road bike with skinny tires and drop bars, a mountain bike with big tires and a flat bar, and a hybrid commuter bike. Two of the three are currently in the shop, one with brake issues and the other with (I believe) a busted bottom bracket. Well, at least I still have A bike at home, and it’s my road bike which is the perfect bike for this summer weather.

Despite Covid, the local bike shops here are doing insanely good business. People are cycling like never before. The shops are sold out of their inventory (particularly of the cheaper entry-level bikes), and their repair timeframes are 2-3 weeks. I have to say it’s weird to go to a bike shop and conduct all my business, including payment, out in the alley behind the shop. (They don’t allow any customers indoors.) But at least they’re open and at least my bikes are going to be fixed.

I may have mentioned before that my dad has Parkinson’s Disease. Because of him, I registered for the Tour De Fox, the Michael J. Fox Foundation’s annual ride to raise funds for Parkinson’s research. At the time I registered, Covid was only in China (that we knew of) and barely making the news here. Around May, they finally turned it into a virtual event, meaning I could choose my route (preferably close to home) and ride it on my own. The Foundation sent me an excellent care package with a T shirt, bike jersey (had to raise at least $500 for that), custom bib number, and some snacks. I chose a 70-mile route near the town of Silverton, Oregon. I could not have picked a better day or location to ride. The weather was sunny and warm but not hot, the views were gorgeous, and the car traffic was not horrible. I had not ridden that far in one day for about a year, but I did OK and I hope to do more road rides like this soon.

The weather here says it’s still summer, but I know it’ll be fall soon. I’m not really looking forward to biking in inclement weather, but until we get vaccinated (mid-2021 at least, according to the WHO) I think biking is my best option for getting regular, vigorous exercise. Who knows, maybe we’ll have an early snow and I’ll have an excuse to buy a fatbike.

Secret Police Expand their Ops, but so do Protest Groups

As I speculated two posts ago, the unidentified, unmarked federal police invading Portland, provoking/harassing/shooting peaceful protesters, and causing a stir with their uninvited violations of civil rights guaranteed under the Constitution, were just the Trump administration’s beta test for other large cities having Democrat mayors (which is most of them; 35 of the 50 largest U.S. cities at least), whom Trump denounces as “weak”. A Federal Court judge dismissed the State of Oregon’s lawsuit for a restraining order against the Department of Homeland Security; he ruled that the State had no standing to sue. No standing to protect its own citizens from illegal searches, seizures and detainments. So now the coast is clear for Operation Gestapo to invade many other cities…the rumor is they have already started in Kansas City and Chicago.

On the other side of things, Portland is gaining fame or notoriety (depending on which side of the political fence you occupy) for its “Wall of Moms” donning yellow T-shirts and linking arms across the leading edge of protest gatherings to protect the other protesters from police batons and munitions. Not long after the Wall of Moms became known, a Wall of Vets organized, made up of U.S. military veterans seeking to fulfill their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. The Portlanders and Seattlites I speak with or write to are generally in favor of the protesters’ right to peacefully assemble, and are aware that violent/destructive activity typically takes place after-hours, by people not affiliated with the protests.

But in Oregon, you don’t have to go very far outside of Portland to hear a very different average sentiment. People elsewhere in Oregon have nothing short of contempt for Portland and its citizens. In their minds the protesters and the vandals are one and the same. In their opinions it is just fine that Federal officers have been deployed to “protect” Federal property in Portland (there are a couple of U.S. District Courthouses there). If the protesters would only be respectful, and not disrupt things in downtown Portland, they argue, the protesters would in turn be respected. But since they can’t or won’t, the argument goes, martial law should be imposed and anyone caught out after curfew should be shot.

Two things immediately come to mind that are wrong with this argument or viewpoint. First, it misses the whole point of protest. A protest is by its very nature a disruption, a way to blow a shrill whistle and say “Wait a minute! All is not well! There are serious problems in our country and they are not being addressed properly!” If you aren’t getting in the faces of the powers that be to blow that whistle, then you will be quickly ignored and dismissed…sad but true. Second, the slope is indeed slippery from martial law in the so-called “protest cities” to martial law everywhere. It’s a slippery slope from someone getting disappeared for attending a nighttime protest to someone losing rights/privileges/status for doing other things that are technically legal but critical of the Trump regime (writing a blog, say). There is no dividing line between a “protester” and a “normal” person. Protesters are moms, dads, healthcare workers, Uber drivers, architects, veterans, grocery store employees, and clergypersons…they are you and me. What happens to them can easily happen to you and me.

It is now 100 days until the Presidential election. The hope I cling to is that its results will herald the end of the Trump era.

The Legacies of “Discovery” and “Conquest”: Why the Columbia River needs a Name Change

Amid all the protests, amid all the statue topplings, amid all the talk of equity, diversity and inclusion, and amid the removals of racially-charged and/or culturally insensitive symbols, mascots and names, one idea is now our charge: it is high time we changed the narrative of this nation and indeed the narrative of the “developed” world (which is in itself a grossly insensitive word, but I don’t have a better one at time of writing).

When it comes to equity and inclusion of Indigenous peoples, two of our most dearly-held and basic concepts desperately need examination and reform. These concepts (actually fallacies) are the “discovery” of places by white men and the “right” of said white men to rule these places by conquest.

Most of us were taught at a very young age that the lands we know as America were “discovered” by a white man named Christopher Columbus in 1492. We were taught that he mistakenly thought he was near India, so he named the islands the West Indies and he called the inhabitants Indians. The diminution and oppression of Indigenous peoples begins by sticking to the name “Indians” while being fully aware of its incorrect origin…it conveys two basic messages from whites to Indigenous people (1) the whites have the power and thus will decide on your names, not you, and (2) you don’t matter enough for us to correct our mistaken name for you.

The legacy of “discovery” pre-supposes who matters and who doesn’t. Most of us were also taught very young that, even though America was already inhabited in 1492, it is Columbus’s “discovery” of them that matters to us today. This teaching further imparts the values of white America and brands them into young minds: that which is light-skinned, Christian, and of European origin is inherently superior to other colors, races, religions, and cultures. We honor Christopher Columbus today, because he “really discovered” America, through the naming of places: the District of Columbia, the province of British Columbia, cities in Ohio, South Carolina, Georgia and other places, and the Columbia River. That last name is actually taken from a fur trading ship (the Columbia Rediviva), but because the ship was named to honor Columbus the river name honors him as well.

As if this weren’t insulting enough to the cultures of Indigenous peoples whose civilizations were established on this continent, literally for millennia, prior to the lifetime of Christopher Columbus, we honor the man as an embodiment of the Doctrine of Discovery (not to be confused with the legacy/fallacy of “discovery” I write about above). The Doctrine of Discovery was invented and adopted by the Catholic Church to empower and justify the behavior of European nations toward non-European peoples. The Church as part of Christianity preaches that all people are to be treated with kindness, consideration and compassion. However, from the Middle Ages to the present day nations identifying as Christian have profited from engaging in decidedly un-Christian behavior…that is, the murder, rape, enslavement and robbery (amongst other cruelties) of the Indigenous peoples they encountered when they explored new places. To make this un-Christian behavior jive with the tenets of their religion (it would have been very unprofitable simply to condemn it), the Catholic Church came up with the Doctrine of Discovery: the subjugation of Indigenous peoples through murder, rape, enslavement, etc. is okay because God wills it. And we know that God wills it because if he didn’t, he wouldn’t have made our technology so badass (ships, cannons, muskets, etc.) and he would’ve made the Indigenous peoples Christian just like us. Another way to state it is: because we are bringing Christianity to these heathen peoples we can do unto them the exact opposite of what Christ himself taught us to do. Columbus embodied this principle by looting Central American places (thou shalt not steal), murdering their inhabitants by the thousands (thou shalt not kill), raping their women (thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife) and enslaving the survivors (love thy neighbor as thyself), all with the blessings of the Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church.

Besides being absurdly self-contradictory and transparently greed-based, the Doctrine of Discovery is a violent, offensive relic of our past, from a time when “might made right” and “to the victor belonged the spoils”. Many of the Protestant religions (which separated from the Catholic religion but took the Doctrine of Discovery with them when they left), recognizing that humankind can and should evolve beyond such a brutish concept, have in recent years denounced and abandoned the Doctrine. But amazingly, the Catholic Church still clings to it today as a cornerstone of the faith.

But we needn’t worry about that in the good old US of A, right? After all, our First Amendment mandates the separation of church and state. Well, in reality it’s not that simple. While it might not be an official policy of the US, the Doctrine of Discovery has crept into countless aspects of American life over the years, such as Manifest Destiny, i.e. we white Americans are such badasses against the “Indians” that it must be because God/the Universe wills it…and who are we to question God’s will? We’d better get out West and do what He wants us to!! And while we may not come right out and say “This is the natural order of things, and it is right and good,” it is the sentiment we honor and respect even today. We name mountains, rivers, lakes and cities after white men who carried out genocide, murder, and enslavement of Indigenous peoples, often in the very places of their namesakes. Sheridan, Vancouver, McLoughlin, Jefferson, Jackson…these are just a few examples out of thousands. In a few cases (such as Denali) we have returned to using the Indigenous name; this needs to continue and expand to as many places as possible. And the right ones to start with are the names that wrongly honor white men who murdered and raped and enslaved Indigenous people for years…such as Christopher Columbus.

We need to rename the Columbia River. At least 20 different sovereign Indigenous nations still live within its watershed, in BC, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. It may not be easy to decide on which name to replace “Columbia” with, but the task’s difficulty does not make it any less right. Let’s right the wrongs we can, starting with the Columbia.

Trump Escalates the Violence Using Secret Police

National news outlets are picking up on the fact that the White House and its cabinet Dept. of Homeland Security have been sending armed, camouflaged officers to my town to harass protesters, against the wishes of state and local leaders. Video after video posted online shows civilians engaged in no illegal activity (in some cases they are only trying to help injured/fallen people and are clearly marked as medics), targeted, rushed, restrained, and then thrown into vans by these armed officers. The vans speed away and the victims are not heard from, sometimes for days.

Who are these armed, camouflaged men? The news says they are law enforcement officers from DHS agencies such as Customs and Border Patrol. But their camo military uniforms have no insignia or other agency markings, and no identifying names or numbers. Their vans are not federal vehicles; they have been rented from a local rental car company and bear no agency markings or ID. In short, there is no way to know exactly who they are or whether they generally have authority to subdue, search, seize and detain individuals. They could be anyone as far as we know.

What happens to the detainees? According to reports from detainees themselves, they are not told where they are being taken or who is taking them, or why. They are not read their rights because they are technically not under arrest. There is no warrant and no probable cause, nor even “reasonable suspicion”. They are brought to a building and a room where they are held for an unknown amount of time. They are not allowed to call or contact anyone, nor to leave the room. They are asked questions without their lawyer present. When they are finally released from the building, they figure out that they have been held inside a U.S. federal courthouse. They are given no assistance or way home. All of these things, incidentally, are illegal for any person (law enforcement or not) to do to another person (criminal suspect or not) under the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution, and under state criminal and tort law.

Why are they doing this? Their “help” in managing protests has not been solicited by the City of Portland, Multnomah County, or the State of Oregon. Well….It has been correctly pointed out online that the Gestapo employed very similar tactics against those who resisted (or simply did not join in the racism) during Nazi rule in Germany, quite successfully. This type of illegal activity is intended to 1. escalate and exacerbate tension and violence, strengthening the fallacy that the brutal response was indeed needed in the first place; 2. play to the President’s voter base, who disapprove of the anti-racism protests, close to the election; 3. intimidate and deter anyone who might have been thinking about joining the protests; 4. make the Administration appear strong and invincible to the public, reinforcing a shoulder-shrug, eh-what-you-gonna-do-let’s-move-on kind of attitude among the majority; and 5. enable and encourage the illegal activity of far-right extremist vigilante/militia groups, who are known to don military-style armor and take up weapons to violently harass anti-fascist and anti-racism protesters.

What is the big picture long game here? I believe Portland is a small-scale, relatively-low-risk beta test for the Administration. If the State of Oregon’s lawsuit against DHS is successful and the White House is body slammed by the courts, it likely won’t harm Trump’s approval rating nationally or upset too many folks outside of the Pacific Northwest. But if the Trump Administration gets away with this, you can bet money that we will see similar operations spring up in New York, Chicago, LA, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Seattle, St. Louis, Denver, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC of course, and across the nation.

We kept waiting. We kept waiting for things to get better–biologically, socially, politically–and they didn’t. I wish I could be more upbeat about it without lying. But things have only gotten much worse, at least for the good ol’ US of A. And there is no sign of things getting better for at least another year, maybe longer.

Oh, there is the stock market. Trumpers and other deniers are quick to point out that stock markets are currently up, and for those of us fortunate enough to own stocks I suppose that’s something. But the markets are anything but stable, fluctuating pretty loudly without any indication they will quiet down anytime soon. And more importantly, this is not the 20th century: the stock market is no longer a reliable indicator of how the economy is doing. Unemployment and poverty are still at once-in-a-century highs. The $1,200 check some American taxpayers got (delayed so that Donald J. Trump’s signature could grace its front) was the bucket of water that did little to stop the roaring house fire.

Biologically, the virus is spreading as if Americans are actively doing their best to get and give Covid to every living being. Maybe some of us are. We are still in our first wave and will likely pass 200,000 deaths this year, even as other places including developing countries are able to safely reopen because they’ve contained and controlled their outbreaks. For those of us who do what we can to protect ourselves and others (I consider us a relatively silent majority), our efforts seem increasingly futile. In my state it is mandatory to wear a mask in every indoor public space…despite this, I can count on one hand the number of places (mostly grocery stores) where everyone I encountered was properly masked over nose and mouth. Apparently due to some combination of inconvenience and a feeling of “freedoms being suppressed” many people simply refuse to wear masks or distance in public places. On social media I see videos of confrontations involving these people all the time, but in real life no one visibly minds them…I guess it makes more sense to avoid Covid Karen or Covid Ken than to get in their face. But secretly I wish I were brave/stupid enough to confront these people and kick them out of the store. I wish we were all brave/stupid enough to take control of our nation again.

Speaking of which, protesters are not giving up. Why should they? They’ve demanded justice and gotten none. They’ve demanded change and gotten none. Every time some kind of reform appears on the horizon, usually from state or local governments, the good old USA government steps in and says “Nope”. Federal Homeland Security officers were brought in to my town because the President thought local law enforcement was too “hamstrung” in his opinion. But violence will only be met with more violence. If one side doubles down, so will the other side, and nothing will be solved. No one will benefit except weapons makers.

Politically, I think we are in the midst of a war. I’ve never seen this country so deeply and powerfully divided. The current crisis has only driven the two sides further apart. Lately I’ve been fascinated by American Civil War documentaries, and can’t help but notice the many parallels between the 1850s and now. I have little hope for the near future…regardless of who is elected in November, there will be violence, and probably a lot of it. I’m lucky to live in a small, relatively friendly area where most folks know & like each other. I hope that lasts.

In years past, every riding season (end of April thru mid-October for me, usually) I would register for 7-10 event rides, which are supported road rides of between 36 and 105 miles, include fully stocked rest stops at intervals of 8-20 miles with snacks/water/portajohns, and are generally a very good time. Yes, they cost a fair amount of money to register, but they usually benefit a charity so I don’t feel too bad about shelling out some bank to join these rides.

The year 2020 has put a temporary moratorium on event rides, just like with marathons, fun runs, and other gatherings. So how does one go about getting some long road rides in, unsupported? Well, here are some tips that you can use to make your own event ride, either for a solo ride or one with a few distancing friends.

Tip 1. Use a route planner app and download the route to your phone or GPS. I swear I don’t get paid for the mention, but I use Ride With GPS and it is slick. I don’t have a paid account, but for free I can map out a route on public roads, see the route length and a profile of the hill climbs & descents, and download the whole thing to my phone. Once I’m out there on my bike I can bring up the app on my phone, and using the phone’s GPS the app can give me turn-by-turn audio directions if I want (I can see my location on the app graphically, of course, but usually my phone is in my jersey pocket). Route planning is a necessity, unless you happen to know the route and the area like the back of your hand…otherwise, the same roads can look different to you at different times of day, different times of year or in different weather conditions, so you really want to have the route on your phone in order to avoid the misery of ever having to self-locate and then self-navigate just by dead reckoning.

Tip 2. Scout the route in your car beforehand if you’ve never seen the route or it’s been a long while, especially in rural areas. Google and other map sites have a funny way of sometimes overselling what kind of roads are where. I have planned out routes that appeared paved on the map, only to find out they were gravel or dirt, or even worse non-existent. Also, road conditions can change very quickly: construction can be happening, potholes can show up, and all sorts of other hazards can develop since the last time you cycled on a road. So it’s a good idea to drive the route, or enough of it you can make a good scouting report, before you commit to bicycling it.

Tip 3. Pack plenty of food & water, and locate refilling places beforehand. Nothing will put the big ‘ol SUCKS on a ride faster than hunger or thirst with little hope of quenching. So throw plenty of energy bars (or waffles, gummies, etc.) in those jersey pockets and fill at least two bike bottles before leaving. Then, in addition, know one or more places along the route where you can get drinking water, purchase food, pee, etc. Also, know yourself…for example, I know that for a ride under 60 miles I don’t need to carry a ton of food, but if I’m going 60-100 miles I need to have a definite food plan. Same with water: in hot summer weather, two bike bottles are going to need refilling, probably before the 30 mile mark.

Tip 4. Have an escape plan. Sometimes despite your best planning efforts, things go wrong that no reasonable cyclist can hope to repair out on the road before nightfall. Have a plan for what to do in these situations. Identify a buddy or family member who can drive out to your location if you give them the SOS call (I highly recommend confirming that the buddy is OK with being your safety net beforehand.) The last thing you want is to be 50 miles away from your house or car with either a busted bike or malfunctioning body, and no one to help you out. This is especially important during the pandemic, when stores and bike shops are mostly closed and hitchhiking is unlikely to be easy or successful at all.

Tip 5. Invest in a small phone charger you can pocket. Most of these little chargers cost $30 or less nowadays, which is a small price to pay if it means the difference between executing your escape plan immediately or having to walk 25 miles to a phone you can use because your cell phone died. Don’t forget the charging cord!

Using these tips you can still have some epic road rides, virus or no virus.

The Gathering Storm: Change vs. Conservatism

Today, about 14 weeks after I was first sent home early by my employer, the place where I live begins Phase One of reopening. It is also Juneteenth, and so my employer joined many others in giving its employees the day off…on top of everything we are experiencing summer-like weather after a long cool and rainy spell. The Governor of my state even admits this is not a good time to reopen…so I’m going to be eyeballing the COVID stats extra closely the next couple of weeks, because I’m sure my area will see a spike in cases.

The virus Co-SARS-2 (COVID-19), a purely biological and thus scientific phenomenon, has been politicized as much as any other thing the world has ever known. Because our social systems have been so disrupted by it, and by the ways in which we’ve responded (or failed to respond) to it, the result is a growing conflict between two schools of thought in America and across the globe, although the conflict seems to be more pronounced in America (but I am likely biased). Most adults who’ve been paying attention know this already, so this post is going to look like I’m mansplaining it, but the post is for me more than anyone else, because putting difficult things into words is a kind of therapy for me.

School A, which I’ll call the red school even though not all Republicans belong to it, and in fact many Democrats espouse it, preaches just getting on with our lives and accepting whatever consequences that might bring. From what I’ve seen no one in the red school really disputes the death count or case numbers…the real argument appears to be about what we should do in response. The red school wishes we would all just “wise up”, agree that 2019 America was as perfect a society as any human could ever hope for, go right back to that version of America, and bury our one-eighth million (and counting) dead. “Keep calm and carry on” might be a motto they would like.

School B, which I’ll call the blue school even though Democrats/liberals cannot be counted on to unify around anything ever, emphasizes that 2019 America is the reason why COVID hit our country so badly and the bodies continue to pile up in ever-harder-to-fathom numbers. They argue that 2019 America had/has unacceptable problems in the areas of health care, justice, economics, environment, racial and gender equity, and education among others, and that these problems were so deeply entrenched it took something like COVID to make it possible to address them. Their stance is that while COVID is horrible, and our nation’s collective response to it has been nothing short of atrocious, the fact remains this is a once-in-500-year chance to make meaningful, lasting change happen. Beyond that, they say it is our duty to ourselves and to future generations to change things for the better.

School A will never change School B’s mind, and vice versa. The conflict between conservative and liberal in this country has escalated since the 1990s, ramped up rapidly with Trump’s election, and has come to a head with COVID and the protests sparked by the murders of George Floyd and others. The conflict is already bloody. What will the next six months see? I don’t have a crystal ball but I have a hard time imagining it will calm down anytime soon, regardless of election results, regardless of COVID numbers, and regardless of the interim changes that might take place.

The divide in America is deep and hurtful. It is not necessarily race-based, but School A tends to be dominated by whites. It is not necessarily generational, but Millenials and Gen Z are much more likely to belong to School B. It is not necessarily geographic, but Midwesterners and Southerners are more likely to be in School A than people on either coast. If the divide had to be distilled into one adjective, that word would be political. I think it goes deeper than just partisan politics, but that is the single factor than matches up better than any other. Sadly, our history shows that only prolonged, violent (fatal) conflict brings any kind of resolution to divides like this one. I hope it can be resolved without millions dying/suffering, but at this point I can’t really see how.

And now, for the first time in well over three months, an actual bicycling post:

I have posted previously about high visibility…brightly colored and/or reflective clothing, flashing lights, etc. Many cyclists disagree with my stance that it’s a good idea to be highly visible when riding in traffic. Their argument, if I understand it correctly, is that this practice advances the false but widely espoused narrative that it’s the cyclist’s burden, the cyclist’s responsibility, an impossible standard imposed on the cyclist, to make sure motorists see them. The narrative should be, their argument goes, that the burden is squarely and solely on the motorist to be attentive and alert enough (and maintain slow enough speeds) to see a cyclist on the road in any conditions, with enough time to react safely, no matter what appearance the cyclist manifests. When a cyclist is struck by a car, the questions “was the bike rider wearing bright colors/lights/reflectors?” should never be uttered…instead the questions “how fast was the car going? was the driver distracted or under the influence? why wasn’t the driver paying attention well enough?” should be the ones asked.

For a while yesterday afternoon, I was 100% with these cyclists, although I’ve calmed down now (a little). I was pedaling my heavy steel commuter bike home from work, slogging up a not-insignificant hill in the bike lane of a busy arterial. Because it was raining I had on my rainjacket, which is hi-vis yellow with reflective markings. I also had on my Lumos helmet which sports bright blinking lights front and rear. My bike also has very bright, dynamo-powered headlamp and taillamps. Needless to say I was almost annoyingly visible.

Now, I am fully aware that as a traveler going along in the bike lane (it’s just a stripe) of a busy highway with lots of driveways and intersections, one of the biggest risks I face is a motorist turning into or out of one of said driveways and intersections. As much as possible I try to make eye contact with them and confirm they are stopping before I go plodding along in front of them. If they aren’t stopping, then I stop and let them go in front of me…there is no way I’m going to win in a fight with a half-ton (or heavier) moving hunk of metal.

As I was climbing in the bike lane, I starting crossing an empty (at the time) intersection with a small side street. The arterial I was on had the right of way; the side street had a stop sign. About a quarter of the way through the intersection, a car came up to the stop sign and stopped. I was on the driver’s left, about to go left-to-right in front of the car, so I looked into the driver’s side window and made eye contact with the driver, a 30-something male. Satisfied that he had seen me and would remain stopped until I passed in front of him, I kept pedaling. But I was wrong about what he would do.

Just as my front wheel was even with the front-driverside corner of the car, he gunned the engine (he never just revved it while remaining still) and jumped out across the bike lane, starting a right turn into the arterial. This was the last thing I expected and I wasn’t ready for it. If he had done this a half-second later he would have struck my legs and likely run over me and the bike. As it was I am amazed at myself for having the reflexes to swerve and avoid being struck. While I was swerving I was shouting “Hey! HEY! HEEEEEYYYYY!!!” at the top of my lungs.

This is the part that really boils my blood. I know he heard me shouting because he let off the gas momentarily. BUT THEN HE GUNNED IT AGAIN, MISSING ME BY AN INCH AGAIN. This time I was ready and swerved left hard (luckily there were no cars in the motor lane I had to swerve into), following this maneuver with some loudly shouted expletives. (The adrenaline rush kept me from looking for his plate number.) He honked his horn back at me, took a second to say something into his rearview mirror, then floored the gas and sped off. Was he trying to intimidate me into stopping with the initial gunning of his engine? Did he assume I was stopped when he gunned it the second time? Was he intending to strike me either time? I’ll never know the answers.

One thing I do know is I will never again assume that being visible to a driver makes me safe from that driver. If a motorist sees you, you are still a target for him. Not everyone wants to avoid hitting you out on the road. So I will continue to wear my bright colors and my bright lights…but I won’t fool myself into thinking that I don’t need to assume every driver is perfectly capable and willing to hit and kill me whether he sees me or not.