Today is Patriot Day here in the U.S., so let’s take a moment to consider what it means to be a mountain biking patriot.
First off, patriot is defined as “One who loves, supports and defends one’s country.”
Therefore, one needs to ask how do I love, support and defend mountain biking(?)
If you live here in Jefferson County you’ll find that mountain biking has been under assault for years by Metro Parks. We’ve been kicked out of Jefferson Memorial Forest & Iroquois Park, came very close to having a large part of the trail destroyed at Waverly when parks had plans for installing a Frisbee Golf Course, nearly kicked out of Cherokee and treated like second-class citizens for years.
When it comes to defending mountain biking here in Jefferson County, you can see we’ve been anything but patriots. We’ve let a small authoritarian intellectual group make closed-door decisions when it comes to the use of our PUBLIC parks. It’s no wonder that we’ve ended up with part, or all, of the trail system at every major park in the system open to horses, but only a very limited amount open to the common everyday folks who can afford a mountain bike.
Last weeks Labor Day Hike & Bike, attended by over 4,000 people (over 90% of which were cyclists) provided an excellent opportunity to defend mountain biking against Metro Parks Elitist Trail policies. The vast majority of cyclists, mountain bikers included, are unaware that we only have access to three relatively small parcels of property here in Jefferson County. So why not educate the cycling public on the truth? Why not point out that Metro Parks for years tried to kill mountain biking locally, and continues to support an elitist and privileged agenda?
Why have we let Metro Parks “control the public mind” when it comes to mountain biking? The attempts to rationalize their anti-democratic policies are simple propaganda. Sine when did it become the “essence of democracy” to consciously manipulate the habits and opinions of the tax paying public?
Despite all the recent “harmony” between mountain bikers and Metro Parks, what’s changed? It’s still the same old, listen to orders, do what they tell you and shut up. When was the last time someone in a leadership capacity urged you to act democratically and challenge Metro Parks stranglehold on trails?
Metro Parks is once again using the old trail work guilt trip on local mountain bikers. They’ll sponsor the occasional trail day, fully expecting volunteers to build trails that they’re responsible for building and complain that not enough people are showing up to get the work done.
I’ve let our Metro Council know for years about how wasteful and inefficient Metro Parks is. The simple conclusion is that we need to privatize parks services to insure our tax dollars are spent wisely as well as to put an end to a small group of privileged elitists making decisions about our public trails.
In conclusion, please live and act as a Patriot. Talk truth to power in dealing with Metro Parks. Contact Metro Council and demand that Metro Parks spends our tax dollars wisely. Let your Metro Council know that you don’t support Metro Parks Elitist Trail Policies!
