Reno’s Bike to Work Week starts May 9 and runs through the 15th. You can get more information on it at http://bikewashoe.org. We’re a sponsor, so that means upon death, you can turn in your chit as an indulgence for all manner of sinning.
You know, every year since 2005, we’ve written one of our we’re-all-in-this-together, feel-good-about-yourself-for-helping, save-the-planet, it’s-for-the-children editorials. This year, after watching our Legislature of Whores posture their convictions while bending over gratefully for their contributors, we thought we’d approach it from a different angle.
You’re on your own.
Do not count on government to do any of those things that a rational person would do. Our Legislature has done nothing—nothing—to help stave off climate change by encouraging individual investment in greener technologies or to discourage the use of air-polluting, planet warming hydrocarbons.
No, they’re actually working to figure out ways to discourage the purchase of electric automobiles by talking about increasing taxes to compensate for the “lost” tax revenue that electric car owners don’t pay because they don’t buy gasoline. They actually enable utilities’ greed. They’re going to have to choose between masters when Tesla starts selling those batteries that will power homes off solar.
They don’t see the millions saved in wear and tear on the roads, since electric cars can’t be used for long trips. They just see the potential for wallets that aren’t being tapped. Legislators should incentivize bicycle use, but they can’t think this way because it doesn’t put money in their pimps’ hands.
You’d think the medical-pharmacological-insurance-industrial complex and government would jump at the chance to decrease insurance costs for people who ride their bikes. You know, those so-called diseases of plenty, like obesity, heart disease and diabetes strike the physically fit much less than they strike the fat-ass-in-SUV types, right? It’s easy to track whether you’re riding your bike or walking. What do you think your cell phones and FitBits do? But then, how would insurance companies actually maintain their astronomical fees if we increased fitness and decreased the lung and heart disease caused by air pollution and a sedentary lifestyle?
Nope. You’re not going to find any help from those who benefit by keeping you sick.
You’re on your own. The changes you make in your own life, and the feels you get from good health and personal connection to your commuting route, are the only rewards you’re going to get for riding to work.
The zealots talk a lot about personal responsibility and the impotence of government while they feather their own nests, undermine government effectiveness from within and destroy their own children’s and grandchildren’s planet. Don’t count on them doing anything that people with conscience would do.
You’re on your own.