bicycle
I know people who rant and rave about how pedestrians and bicyclists get in their way. These are the same people for whom walking two blocks when they park is an abomination. They complain about traffic and the cost of gas. These same people shop at Walmart and eat at Arby’s for lunch. When you examine all the facts it seems that they are completely unaware and represent the epitome of consumption and wastefulness. They are the perfect example of a parasite.
You drive a car – it consumes petroleum and pollutes our environment. YES! You should have to pay to park and maybe if you walked a bit more you would not be such a burden on our health care system. I wish we could heavily tax your lunch – with your CAFO raised beef and corn syrup laced beverages – so we can pay for the health care you do and will continue to require for the next 30 years.
I ask you to consider this – when the flow of petroleum becomes a nearly imperceptible drip, for it will be in your lifetime, how will you manage? What will you do? Bitch and complain? Keep voting republican and start another war? Steal it from the ‘terrorists’ and the ‘communists?’ When whole communities start to rot because the good, white Christians of the world take care of their own – will your conscience be stirred or will the poverty-stricken, minority communities ‘get what they deserve?’
The world is changing. Are you changing with it or will your cold, petroleum soaked hands clutch the wheel of your gas-guzzling, carbon-spewing, roadkill machine until there is nothing left? How many people will die trying to suck up or control the last drop of oil? You hear people talk about the crisis and you stand by, skeptical and apathetic. There’s nothing we can do about it so why change – right?
We’ve got americans ditching their cars and installing bike racks. People are trying to keep Walmart out of their town and choosing the farmers’ market. We have public policy makers looking for ways to promote and expand public transportation. The world is changing and it’s time for us to change with it. Innovate or die. Adapt or go the way of the dinosaur.
If we have the awareness to do these things it seems that we must do them.
