Bikes not bombs

Last week was pretty messed up around here in Boston.  It all began of course on Monday the 15th with the bombings at the finishing area of the Boston Marathon on Boylston Street in Copley Square killing 3 people and wounding 140 others.  Fortunately I wasn't anywhere near this when it went down but I was there last year to watch the race and I use to work in Copley Square for a few years so I know the area really well.

Friends of mine at New Balance, which is a sponsor for the race were there though working the finishing area.  It's a big undertaking so they stay overnight in the Lenox Hotel located on the finishing line.  Fortunately they were on the eleventh floor inside the Lenox when the two bombs exploded so none of them were hurt but they were certainly rocked by the shear power of the explosion.  Keith said he literally thought the building was about to collapse and got out as fast as he could.  Once he made it onto the street he said it was the most horrible sight he had ever seen and hopes never to see anything like it again, a sentiment every eyewitness undoubtedly shares.

IS AN IDEOLOGY

I think the questions for most people are why this happened and how can the problem be fixed for good.  The complexities around these are so layered and shifting I don't think anyone really knows the answer because the enemy in these things is an ideology and a tactic not a group of people.

The Pentagon, FBI, CIA and the like; with all there might aren't fixing the problem.  The successes they've had come more increasingly with compromises to our rights as citizens of the United States.  I'm not saying this to knock them either because you have to invade private homes (without a warrant) with two wacko's on the loose cooking bombs in their kitchen to murder people and kill cops.

So anyway I was thinking this morning, 'I'm into bike riding', obviously....and I thought about all the positive effects bike riding, bike racing and this lifestyle have for myself and for my community.   Going through them it's actually hard to keep track there are so many.  In this, I also thought about how one bike rider can become a household of bike riders and household can become a community of bike riders that can eventually become a nation of bike riders.

I know it's a pipe dream and somewhat oversimplified but what do you think the odds are of a radical ideology wanting to annihilate a nation embedded in bike riding lifestyle.  When was the last time Denmark get bombed?

Peace and roll strong.