Schutzstaffel

I broke two rear wheel spokes this afternoon on my ride home, right during acceleration out of a stoplight on 65th street. Bummer. I was able to loosen two on the other side and fixed the wobble, unbelievably so, it worked perfectly. I gingerly rode the remaining 8 miles home.

Compare this to Hillary's commute in a much finer chariot the other day, in a sheet metal worker's borrowed F250 truck. Trailing her were six Suburbans, two squad cars, and a green SUV which carried the press to document said commute.

I realize I bike so that I do not compete for gas with sheet metal workers in Indiana. Oddly, the more I bike and the less fuel I use, the lower the price of fuel becomes so that sheet metal workers can buy more. There doesn't appear to be any net reduction due to my actions. If gas drops in price, both through my lack of use and/or her proposal to suspend the use tax, then sheet metal workers can drive to holiday this summer, instead of just barbequing in the backyard.

Although the F250 was borrowed to accommodate Hillary's Schutzstaffel, this sheet metal worker normally drives a F150 and his wife a Suburban, both of which are necessary to navigate their 1,200-foot dirt driveway in the southern city of Plymouth, IN - and assuming he lives on the north side of town and works in south South Bend, he faces a smart 22-mile one-way commute. Hillary picked up his $60 gas tab. Half a tank. I dunno, a F150 these days might get 18mpg on the freeway. So 2.5 gallons per day, or a total gas cost of nine bucks. What does he make, say $28/hour? I really don't know, he's a unionized worker, wages are usually pretty fair. He only needs to work less than a half hour each day to cover gas. The truck and suburban payments, registration, maintenance and insurance are likely 5 times that.

There is almost nothing more that needs to be said. Such a stark example of why things are so fuckered up. Consider this playing out every day, in every state, in every region, in every city, in every neighborhood. And the future holds that the Hangzhou resident who also can't take the city life will be soon commuting from the future Hangzhou suburb of Shaoxing...

I lament that I won't be around in the future to see the changes we will have to make regarding oil-based commuting. I will likely die of lung cancer breathing in all the fumes during my rides well before we make any serious attempt to change our domestic behavior. But I'm in the 5th stage now, so I accept it. I do well and that's all I can do, and in the meantime, I will will enjoy hearing about sheet metal workers' pain at the gas station.

Their pain is constant and sharp, and they do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact, they want their pain to be inflicted on others...