Monday weekend roundup: Critical Mass

What happened this weekend?

There were a lot of plans, but none of them were actually executed.

I planned to drive to my parents' house Friday night for a weekend of bike work and horse shows, but recent events called me to April's Critical Mass instead.

We rode in memory of a fallen cyclist, and transformed the tragedy into an opportunity to raise awareness. With the press present, we conducted a "die-in," lying beside our overturned bikes to symbolize cyclists' deaths and injuries by automobile.



Photos courtesy of Alex Thompson of Westside BikeSIDE.

You know, I am only just beginning to understand my relationship with activism. I've gone from disdain to total apathy to skepticism to a burgeoning interest, even if it is an often restrained one. There is a part of me that approaches it with a post-modern distrust in genuine passion and there is a part of me that is genuinely moved to correct injustice.

While lying in the street I felt part of a larger idea - the idea that cyclists have a right to the roads - transcending my petty individuality to stand for something greater. I was moved by my participation.

The question of efficacy remains - just whose mind did we change? Did we change anyone's mind? Does anyone care? Are we preaching to the choir? This is the most difficult aspect to recncile, I think, especially when, despite your efforts, most of the drivers caught in the somewhat organized traffic were probably more concerned with getting home than with what was going on within a mob of "bike hippies." I came home and was plagued with a deep sense of failure - "I could have done more." Yet, I am not quite ready to be arrested!

Activism is important, that much is clear to me. At one point, however, my ex and I were working on (And later abandoned) a script in which a boy falls explicitly in love with a tree, causing his tree-hugging girlfriend to cut it down in a fit of jealousy. She is characterized as your typical fashionable environmentalist.

And you know what? Sure it's the thing to do! And why not? So I may settle into a track housing yuppie, but for now, I care about these things, and were it not for your youthful parents, who have turned born-again again, we probably could not enjoy the freedom to be, well, noisy twenty-somethings!

I think it is important to be an activist in the way you feel comfortable with, so long as you are active. My approach is to humanize the "mob" by conducting myself in a respectful courteous way while openly discussing my beliefs. My friends - of whom most don't rely on their bicycles as their primary form of transportation - all know I bike, and by discussing my various adventures with them, they have become more aware drivers. And, much to my delight, they've one by one dusted off their bicycles. "Normal" people ride bikes too!

After Friday night's ride, I went home and went straight to bed so I could get up and drive to my parents' house in the morning.

I planned on upgrading to my dad's Campagnolo brakes (Don't judge!), but couldn't because the cable is too short...and they may not even be compatible. Conversely, I found out the screw I thought I had stripped is actually still functional. So either way, I have functioning brakes, and that's all that matters!

On Sunday I planned to watch my sister compete in her first horse show with her own horse (Again, don't judge!), but the classes preceding hers ran far too long, and I had to leave to go home before she went out. Unexpectedly, however, I found myself bonding with her horse, Simon, with whom I am actually quite smitten, despite my previous fear of horses. It was also the first of many small steps toward repairing the once pettily severed relationship between me and my sister, and she was glad for my support regardless. And that made me very happy.

At one point, I believe it was my mother who asked me, "What's your plan?"

To which I responded that I have none.

They never did me much good anyway.

Speaking of activism, the California Democratic Convention proved to be a big step toward equality for all with the election of prominent LGBTQ members to various positions and a commitment to defeating Proposition 8.