SOLIDARITY AND INTEGRITY
Thread started by
ingipet at 04.19.07 - 1:53 pm
biciclettistas-
i wanted to bring up something very important about the feeling of SOLIDARITY that comes from riding with the midnight ridazz.
the feeling of connection and community i experienced on my first ride was so powerful, it literally brought me to my knees in tears.
and has kept me coming back, ride after ride.
it is a very hard truth, but i am working to accept that simply not everyone can be your friend. Not everyone is going to like you. Some of them will be downright mean to you.
Even if they are in the bicycle community.
This week was the 21st anniversary of my father's death. He was a cyclist and I'm sure would have been involved with the bicycle advocacy movement in Los Angeles, if he were still alive.
I have shared this and other stories with some of you along the past few months. Someone just today responded to my story thusly,
"if you would just chill out and stop your whining! you are taking things so personally"
ah yes. Honoring my father's life and death by riding my bicycle to the tree planted in his memory in Eagle Rock.
wahhahahhahahah. whine winge. moan. awww. poor little ingrid. when am she ever going to just chill?
except for the part where i do not view it that way AT ALL.
indeed, the personal experiences and rewards that have come from riding with the ridazz have touched me so deeply they have actually gotten me out there advocating for bicycle culture in los angeles.
like everyone in this town, in this country, probably the whole damn world, i feel alienated and disconnected from a community where SOLIDARITY and INTEGRITY are words that have meaning and traction.
I know I have found this with midnight ridazz and i am so personally grateful for it, i am crying *RIGHT NOW*
thank you.
ingrid peterson
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i'm ridin with the armed librarians tonight. it is only fitting.
i am on my way out the door right now to LA Public downtown.
we shall see if i can make it through the ride tonight without crying.
SNIFF SNIFF!! CRY BABY.
send in the clowns. the sad, sad clowns.
each tear i shed falls into the heart of a young child, getting on their first bicycle :) ---- i'll have you know!
ride on!
-i
ingipet04.19.07 - 4:05 pm
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Hey Ingrid, I think I'm gonna try to incorporate a portion of 4th St. bb on the June 1st. Dark Century. It should start at mile 67 or so...
We'll see. I'm working with illuminateLA and SoapBoxLa to figure out a 12-16 mile portion of the route. I've already routed and scouted this part, but I think we could definitely refine it. Otherwise the route is ready to go. So hopefully, we'll be 'living the dream' on June 1 under the full moon.
tern04.19.07 - 6:12 pm
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Yee-haw, yahoo
In case you didn't notice Ingrid, so many ride now travel 4th Street.
I never even thought of riding that street until you started the 4sbb project. I even took a date on 4th street the other night. The solidarity is there. Sometimes people do stuff that makes other people step back and say "whoa". I know I have that effect on people sometimes. I know people that do that(from my own personnel experience), are usually running around with a open heart. I think everybody see that in you.
There are people that don't really participate in what we do together week after week. They are doing there own thing, although it has to do with bicycling..
People are coming from different experience everyday, and sometimes feel like what they are doing is being assaulted or is being attack. What does one do in that situation, but try to defend themselves, or what they are doing. I think that may be what your seeing right now. Even when you say "poor Ingrid, boo-hoo" you must feel a sense of attack. Remember when we have trouble, we go to our friends, and our friends that can help us will. We have all experienced this, and our friends or those who care, come through. Thank God for those people.
My mom die in 1985, we where riding bikes together before her death, when I was a teenager. Now I get to ride bikes with my father as he end towards the end of his life. It quite an honor for me to be sharing this experience at this time of my life. So I understand your sense of grief that you still feel for your father lose. It beautiful that you are planting a tree in his honor. A good friend of mine, whom father has passed, has a tree planted in front of a church that he was active in. It's always a touching experience when we pass it.
Don't worry about the shit talkers around here, they are just passing through. If they don't like what we are doing they ain't going to stick around. Those that stick around, really do love this scene, that we have going in LA. Me and all my friends usually don't get home til the suns is coming up after the rides, what does that tell you.
I usually say, buy that person a beer, when we recognize someone contribution to what we are doing. To you Ingrid, I say buy that girl a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. Just don’t crash when you are doing your acrobatic maneuvers on your bike.
sexy04.19.07 - 11:46 pm
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thanks for the words...
and the ride tonight! IAAL-MAF 4.0 ride was wonderful!
as for 4SBB....i still got love for the 4SBB. My vision has definitely expanded to the LOS ANGELES BICYCLE BOULEVARDS...
but check the updated site - i've added a new zone called
"The Bicycle Library" (feel free to send me links!)
http://www.4sbb.com
and i'm getting re-inspired to start some late night sharowzz crews laying down some stencils.....but at all not limited to 4th street...
and cap't sharrowzz! we need a bigger stencil. something as big as the stop sign stencil....
there is plenty of time ahead, i'm feeling good. and as for all those folks out there who don't like me, well, i accept. i will continue living my dream. i also feel very lucky to have a dad who is now a 21 year old tree!!! (the tree was planted in 1986 when he died)
i gotta say, hanging out with my papa is the best and most grounding way to spend an afternoon. if he were still with us, i have the distinct feeling he would love to celebrate with the midnight ridazz!!!! if only he could pull those roots out of the ground and ride!!
ride on!
ingipet04.20.07 - 1:46 am
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Inipet!
It was so cool to get to really talk with you last night at the awesome ALMALALALAAF Taint Ride! You are really an intelligent and sincere person and I hope everyone knows how cool you are. Good Times!
"INTEGRITY -Humanity is the Devil" - HAHAHAHA! Thats my new line now ruinedbyidiots. w00t
Joe Borfo04.20.07 - 8:39 am
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Got to do some bicycle culture *REPRESENTIN* today at the SilverLake Reservoir Meadow this morning. (they are trying to get that piece of land opened up to be a public park)
Ah, public civic discourse.
But at last I met and shook hands with Tom LaBonge, the councilman for the district 4SBB lies in....
he was really into bicycle boulevards....
or maybe he just wanted to lean in to get a closer look at my hot, hot bicycle. either way, the dream lives on. and on and on.
let's harness this ridazz energy keep educating people we encounter about the needs of this wonderful community of cyclists!
ingipet04.21.07 - 3:41 pm
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i found this note in my bike yesterday....
:)
i think my bike is emitting some kind of hetero-normative pheromone!
make it stop!!!!
:)
ingipet04.25.07 - 6:44 pm
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ahaha! . . . pickup note on a bike, had to happen sooner or later, but how does anyone know the sexual orientation of a bicycle?
mr rollers04.25.07 - 6:58 pm
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you bring up a pressing question....
i had thought my bike was "gender-neutral"
i'm beginning to wonder though.....
does my bike (*gasp*) like BOYS?!
thinking back to the solo rides i've taken this week...hmmm....you know, at the top of every hill i climbed in echo park and westlake, there was consistently a man up there just *waiting* to call out something to me like,
"GO BABY! You made it! Keep going!"
perhaps this attention was not for me, as i had barfily assumed.
no, no! perhaps, indeed this attention was for my hot HOT bicycle.
who likes skeevy boys.
who leave pick-up notes on your bike at the DMV.
and cat call you at the tops of hills.
ah. tolerance.
i still love my bicycle.
she's a good girl.
let her be known as,
"Road Angel"
!
LA Bike Angels....coming soon to a street near you!
ingipet04.25.07 - 11:08 pm
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-->
Ridazz Roulette!
peace
aw....