Sometimes satire has to hurt
Occasionally someone will ask me what I really enjoy writing about on Rock City Times. The funny post, the biscuit comas and the weathermen fight, are always entertaining. My heart though is with the true satire.
I always enjoy good satire. It is an art form that is extremely hard to master. It is the perfect analogy, a pure metaphor. It takes a social issue and applies it to something else for people to understand.
Today I wrote about bike rider hunting and a few of you took this the wrong way. Perhaps I have offered up too many funny stories lately and not enough satire.
The protection of bike riders is a serious problem in America. There was a great article that I came across the other day comparing the cycling right of way laws in the US verses the Netherlands.
What it showed was that American laws typically side with the vehicle driver, whereas Dutch laws almost always side with the under protected cyclist. In many ways they are treated better than pedistrians in America.
Today’s RCT article is an attempt to take that to the extreme. What if instead of passivily demoting cyclist rights we instead actively promote their lack of rights. This all runs in complete opposition of the movement to promote urban cycling in Little Rock and across the nation.
This is where the pain comes in. A lot of people have been impacted by this lack of protection for cyclist. In a bicycle vs car accident the car is going to win every single time. The cyclist is always defenseless in this case.
I honestly hope you feel that the story was a bit over the top, because that is what satire does. It approaches a situation from a different angle. Please feel irritated about this problem. Take that irritation out to help change laws in your local community to better protect cyclist. Because the lack of laws and openly allowing cyclist to be hit are not that different.
I want people to take a stand on issues. I want to help raise issues up when possible and encourage people to take a stand. If you can be as passionate in your actions as you are in your comments on a website then maybe the world could be a better place.
