15 Years of Critical Mass

www.critical-mass.info


Today marks the 15th aniversary of Critical Mass! For those of you who don't know about CM, it is the world's largest bicycle protest and happens on the last friday of the month around 6pm. CM is not organized and was started by two dozen biker friends in San Francisco, California. Over time, CM has grown like crazy in SF, usually getting around 5,000 people each month to join in on the ride.

Ok, so you may be saying, "So what, it's just a bike ride, what's the big deal." Well, not only is this a biker's rights advocacy protest, but a STOP DRIVING EVERYWHERE protest. The bikers have no set rout which severly messes up traffic, especially on the last friday of the month in the heart of rush hour. And don't say that it's bad for the environment because of all the idoling cars because it really has made a lot of progress in the city. When CM started in 1992 only 2% of trips in SF were made on bikes...now almost 10% of all trips in SF are on bikes. So many trips that the city government has designated "bike only" streets, making it easier for people to ride their bike, and more difficult to drive. If only everywhere was San Francisco...ha. But really, it's true.

I have participated in this event. One time was in SF and it was just about the best time I've ever had. Let me tell you, San Franciscan's know how to turn a protest into a party. Tons of music, pissed off Hummer drivers(but who cares about those people anyway), and the most fun cat and mouse game you could ever play with the cops. The police don't like it because CM doesn't ever have a permit, but that is the whole point. Biking is a right, unlike cars. And BIKES SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY!

Critical Mass, 15 years later is all over the world and has helped so many people realize that the moral thing to do on the way to work or school is to ditch the car and and ride to work. Too bad the South is still in the dark ages. Which brings me to my next point. We, the students of BSC, should start our own Critical Mass in Birmingham. It would be difficult for a while, but something positive needs to happen in this city for once and we have the power to do it...So, who's with me?

Free Public High-Speed Internet Access could be at our fingertips..

Tomorrow, Wednesday the 26th, John Kerry is holding a conference on improving the internet for America. Some of you may be members of Free Press and have already recieved an email about this, but for those of you who haven't, chech it out. One thing that is holding the progression of world-wide education is the lack of free public access high speed internet.

As we have studied, the internet is the easiest medium for people to learn about whats going on around them and to share their opinions and beliefs with others. But unfortunatly, the big media corporations control internet access and won't give it up without a fight. Progressive areas of our country, Northern California for example, have a head start on this issue. Soon the city of San Francisco will be completely wireless, allowing people who normally cannot afford the internet to have free high speed access to a whole world of knowledge. I can only hope that other cities will invest some of their education funds in the same manor.

Tomorrow America will have the (small) chance to progress this idea. Senator Kerry is holding a conference on free public high speed internet access.

PLEASE TAKE THE TIME to write to him via the hyperlink I have provided below. This is one of the most effective ways to help bring education to those who aren't as fortunate as we are! If you care about humanity, I'm sure you can spare the 10 minutes it takes to do this....

http://kerry.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

http://www.savetheinternet.com/blog/2007/09/25/questions-from-sen-kerry-how-can-we-connect-america/

http://www.freepress.net/

neofreedom

Freedom (noun) - the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.

the concept of freedom has played a large role in this country. it was the reason why a group of oppressed citizens ventured accross the vast, unknown atlantic ocean and why they eventually set up a government based on those strong convictions to a society of free people. but it seems that over the years this preception of freedom has strayed from the definition above...some may feel it is for the better, but i feel very differently. americans have forgotten what true freedom is (the freedom spoken of by the founders of the constitution) and the price that is occationally payed for it.

america has been physically attacted only twice in the past century, a small amount compaired to the numerous times of other countries, but both times freedom granted by the constitution in the first ammendment has been severly restricted. one who has studied the basics of the first world war could recall the racist camps that housed japanese american citizens like abused animals during the war. yes, american citizens in america, not jewish citizens in germany. and most americans alive today can tell you where they were when the trade center fell in new york..and the comparison here to the the racist camps of world war two is bush's patriot act, defined as:

Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism

this did not unite or strengthen america, but hack further at our freedom granted by the constitution. just like the racist camps, the patriot act of 2001 took america one step further from the vision of the founders.

my point here is not to critique the president, or to rant about the many grotesque actions of this country's government over the years as it is not entirely their fault. the blood also lies in the hands of us: the voters and consumers. we as voters have the responcibility of electing responsible candidates, which are nearly impossible to find, and as consumers to give our money to businesses who have the best intrest of mankind in mind. neither one of these are achieved often. companies like at&t and viacom have been working for years to hack at 1st ammendment rights (most recently at&t in their plot to spoil the neutrality of the internet) and to mold america's art, music, films, and media into products right off the assembly line. yes, it's true, the popular culture sucks. music played on the radio has no heart, coke ads are more recognizable than artists like vassily kandinski or hassam, movies are meerly a business, and america's mass media keeps feeding the minds of ignorant american citizens with all of this crap.



so my point is that our freedom has been raped by presidents, ignored by congresses, misinturpreted by the corporate media, and all the while we sit and take it. freedom comes at a price and that price is not always paid on the battlefield as the masses think. but freedom is reaped and payed for by the individual every day when we wake up and step outside in a dangerous world, filled with people who hate and kill.

we dont need wire taps and homeland security to preserve our freedom. so far, all its done is restict it. true freedom is not knowing if you are going to be killed in an attack, or if the bomb threat is actually real, but accepting that risk and loving your freedom to the death. not letting it be taken away by presidents or terrorists because a president is a terrorist if he(or she) takes away your freedom as a natural living being.

personally, i would rather been bloan to peices than for my freedom to be taken away. but i've only met a few other people who share my belief of true freedom.....