Bicycle Austin forum

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Yellow Bike Project donates bicycles to refugees

The Yellow Bike Project (which never posts here any more, by the way), has been donating 10-15 bikes per month to adult refugees, and just now donated bikes to 40 refugee children.

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/local/d … B5e3MmMhJ/

The Comments section is filled with the predictable anti-immigrant hand-wringing.  One of the more tame ones: "Where are the bikes for American children?"

RedFalcon

Member

Registered: 2013-10-10

Posts: 233

Re: Yellow Bike Project donates bicycles to refugees

The Comments section is filled with the predictable anti-immigrant hand-wringing.  One of the more tame ones: "Where are the bikes for American children?"

1. You read the comments section of an article that mentioned both immigrants AND cycling????    You have a thick skin!

2. Where are the safe routes to school so that Murikan children can ride their bikes?  Oh, yeah, I forgot...freedom...to drive huge trucks comes first.

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: Yellow Bike Project donates bicycles to refugees

It's funny you mention freedom.  That's America's slogan, but when you think about it, one of the biggest freedoms is freedom of movement, and that's exactly what American kids lack but which they enjoy in places like Japan.  I didn't think about this before I brought my wife and her kids here from there, but in Japan it's so safe that kindergarteners walk to school by themselves, elementary kids take the trains, and the streets are pretty safe for biking.  And the trains go everywhere.  Here in the "freedom"-land of America, our house became a virtual island for the kids.  Stranger danger, unsafe streets, and no trains to speak of.  Their childhood suffered as a result.  If I could rewind the clock, I don't think I would have brought them here.

AusTexMurf

Member

From: South Austin

Registered: 2008-11-21

Posts: 439

Re: Yellow Bike Project donates bicycles to refugees

It's funny you mention freedom.  That's America's slogan, but when you think about it, one of the biggest freedoms is freedom of movement, and that's exactly what American kids lack but which they enjoy in places like Japan...Here in the "freedom"-land of America, our house became a virtual island for the kids.  Stranger danger, unsafe streets, and no trains to speak of.  ....

I have been saying very much the exact same thing for years....

Wake up people, AISD, COA, Texas, United States !

Last edited by AusTexMurf (2016-12-26 12:26:15)

RedFalcon

Member

Registered: 2013-10-10

Posts: 233

Re: Yellow Bike Project donates bicycles to refugees

I grew up in different countries in Europe and could get virtually anywhere using public transport.  When I lived in England I was in middle/high school and used my ten-speed to get all kinds of places.   To get to school I had to take British Rail and then either the Tube or a double-decker bus to get to school.  Lots of other kids younger than me did the same, and none of our parents seemed all that worried about it.  Even during the height of the IRA bombings we didn't stop going places. 

I rode my bike everyday to get around our town and then on the weekends I would explore the countryside for miles around.  To be fair, my parents had no idea just how far I wandered off. 

Some of these kids growing up here in America are stuck in subdivisions separated from anywhere interesting by truly dangerous arterial roads.  One of my nephews is like that.  Until he turned 16 and his parents bought him a car (a huge mistake to buy a 16 yo a new BMW, in my opinion) he felt trapped.  In some ways he was right.  I wouldn't ride on the feeder of 249 in Tomball either.