Last Tuesday there was a little town forum in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to discuss using federal funds to build a bike path through town. You'd think that such a thing wouldn't be controversial in this day and age, but then again, we have teabaggers now. Several of them stood up to protest the idea, citing everything from children being FORCED to ride bikes to carpooling leading to some sort of concentration camp. But you know what happened? The community didn't take it lying down. We stood up to them, three to one. And you know the best part? I got it on video.
As usual, I'm having trouble with the video embed (any advice on that?) so links will have to do.
Here's the crazy on full display The ring leader swears we're all going to be mandated to ride bicycles. The guy that follows says there weren't any bikes outfront (keep in mind, it's December and cold here, but he was still wrong) and seems to think that he's the only one who pays taxes. Then there was the one that took the cake...the lady that warned "the young mothers" that the day when children would be forced to ride bikes in the cold was coming and that we were all going to be put in compounds. You can't make this shit up.
But like I said, we stood up to them. In the video above you see them getting laughed at. And when they took a hand count of for and against, the leader of the teabaggers was left to whine that "the bike people sent out emails" as if she hadn't done that to round up her nutcase band. But you know what's wrong with that idea? I'm really plugged into the local community here, especially the progressives, and I only knew about five or six people there on our side. There were cycling enthusiasts, members of neighborhood associations, parents, doctors, folks off the street, even a guy from the chamber of commerce who spoke up for sustainable development! As the video shows, we joined together to stand up to them and we didn't back down.
That's how you do it. Where ever you live, where ever these clowns pop up, organize and stand up to them. Don't let them pretend that they're the voice of your community. The committee members there were all baffled by how many showed up. Usually two or three people pop in and that's it. This room was packed, and we overwhelmed them. You can do the same. This community isn't exactly a bedrock of progressivism...but we showed today that there are more of us than there are them and that if we get organized and don't back down we'll beat them like a drum.