It's difficult to write anything right now. I could just take it easy and put a black square on Instagram, but I decided to write something here instead.
You all know what this is about. It's about that pre-existing condition that America had from day one and even before. How long can one live with cancer that is growing slowly inside? At some point things are going to spill out.
I happened to live in three different countries in my life so far. I wasn't born here and my experiences and understanding is likely very different than the one of most Americans. But maybe this lets me look at this situation from a different angle. The main problem is - America has never tried to make peace with its past. Whether is the First Nations or people of color, their problems and harm done, have been continuously swept under the rug for decades. Instead of facing real issues, Americans just decided to tell themselves that they live in the "best country in the world".
Such patriotism rarely happens in Europe. In Germany for example, people are generally very aware of mistakes they did in the past and learned not to repeat them in the future. As such, you can't expect to walk the streets of Berlin with a Nazi flag in hand and not being arrested. But in the United States this is perfectly possible, in the name of "freedom".
Freedom and egoism are two words I could describe Americans with. People here have a very different concept of freedom. While in Europe we know that personal freedom can't often go above and beyond the freedom of the whole nation, Americans are being very selfish. This is why you recently heard things like "It's a free country and you can't make me wear a mask!", but it's also why any solutions that could potentially benefit the nation as whole are so difficult to implement here. Americans just somehow don't have the same feeling of being a part of one nation as many Europeans do. While Germans or Danes may agree that public preschools and universal healthcare are good for them because they're good for everyone, Americans in their selfish way would say "Why should I pay for public school from my taxes if I don't have any kids?".
While Finland, Denmark or Iceland are in the top happiest countries in the world, United States will have a serious difficulty ever getting to the podium. We focus on entirely different values here - money, wealth, career, consumption - and we stack cards in favor of those few who want to pursue those values at all cost: corporations. The rest, like many Americans of color, become victims of this system.
It's time to change this. If all lives matter, then why do some matter less then the others?
"But wait, I came here to read about bikes. How does it even relate to bicycles?" - you may think.
It does. Our police force efficiency is rated by the number of tickets written and arrests made, which makes cops naturally seek the weakest targets in order to improve statistics. These could be people of color or it could be bicyclists. NYPD is being especially "productive" here, responding typically with yet another "cyclists crackdown" and absolving drivers of any responsibility after nearly every car-bicycle collision in New York City.
This approach to policing somehow reminds me of communist police states in 1980's Eastern Europe. Police is then no longer a service to people - a formation to protect the citizens and enforce the law, but becomes a tool of oppression by the government. How come the freedom-loving Americans can ever tolerate this?
You all know what this is about. It's about that pre-existing condition that America had from day one and even before. How long can one live with cancer that is growing slowly inside? At some point things are going to spill out.
I happened to live in three different countries in my life so far. I wasn't born here and my experiences and understanding is likely very different than the one of most Americans. But maybe this lets me look at this situation from a different angle. The main problem is - America has never tried to make peace with its past. Whether is the First Nations or people of color, their problems and harm done, have been continuously swept under the rug for decades. Instead of facing real issues, Americans just decided to tell themselves that they live in the "best country in the world".
Freedom and egoism are two words I could describe Americans with. People here have a very different concept of freedom. While in Europe we know that personal freedom can't often go above and beyond the freedom of the whole nation, Americans are being very selfish. This is why you recently heard things like "It's a free country and you can't make me wear a mask!", but it's also why any solutions that could potentially benefit the nation as whole are so difficult to implement here. Americans just somehow don't have the same feeling of being a part of one nation as many Europeans do. While Germans or Danes may agree that public preschools and universal healthcare are good for them because they're good for everyone, Americans in their selfish way would say "Why should I pay for public school from my taxes if I don't have any kids?".
While Finland, Denmark or Iceland are in the top happiest countries in the world, United States will have a serious difficulty ever getting to the podium. We focus on entirely different values here - money, wealth, career, consumption - and we stack cards in favor of those few who want to pursue those values at all cost: corporations. The rest, like many Americans of color, become victims of this system.
It's time to change this. If all lives matter, then why do some matter less then the others?
***
"But wait, I came here to read about bikes. How does it even relate to bicycles?" - you may think.
It does. Our police force efficiency is rated by the number of tickets written and arrests made, which makes cops naturally seek the weakest targets in order to improve statistics. These could be people of color or it could be bicyclists. NYPD is being especially "productive" here, responding typically with yet another "cyclists crackdown" and absolving drivers of any responsibility after nearly every car-bicycle collision in New York City.
This approach to policing somehow reminds me of communist police states in 1980's Eastern Europe. Police is then no longer a service to people - a formation to protect the citizens and enforce the law, but becomes a tool of oppression by the government. How come the freedom-loving Americans can ever tolerate this?
