Everyone should go and read M’s post. This whole truck story has been a catalyst for retrospection and introspection, a good thing.

-It’s frustrating that we live in such a car-based world here. Bottom line: going carless would require a profound change in our lifestyle. No choices there.

-Cars are expensive. Duh. And totally worth it. Can’t do weekend Moab trips any other way.

-I REALLY hate being obligated to do things, and am only vaguely good at turning them into assets. (Yesterday’s run only came after lots of hair pulling, and hanging out at Wildflower for breakfast and Barnes & Noble to kill time this AM was nice. Tom P and Blair, nice shots in Mountain Flyer, though I don’t think Blair was Blair. And the Harris foto in the Alpineer ad is still funny.)

-We’re lazy. It took 18 minutes, uphill, on the fixed mtn bike, into a headwind, to get to the movie theatre this afternoon. No more driving around PV!

-Dave Nice rocks. For all of the reasons above. So I’m riding the fixie to work tomorrow rather than call and bum a ride. I may turn the wheel for the ~8 mile, 4% coast back home. (Will verify with technology.)

Lastly, it’s MLK day. More than just a convenient day off to deal with troblems. It’s a day to celebrate what we have wrought, our country manifesting itself in all it’s glory through a “great man”. Ergo:

What Dr. King understood is that if just one person chose to walk instead of ride the bus, those walls of oppression would not be moved. But maybe if a few more walked, the foundation might start to shake. If a few more women were willing to do what Rosa Parks had done, maybe the cracks would start to show. If teenagers took freedom rides from North to South, maybe a few bricks would come loose. Maybe if white folks marched because they had come to understand that their freedom too was at stake in the impending battle, the wall would begin to sway. And if enough Americans were awakened to the injustice; if they joined together, North and South, rich and poor, Christian and Jew, then perhaps that wall would come tumbling down, and justice would flow like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Unity is the great need of the hour — the great need of this hour. Not because it sounds pleasant or because it makes us feel good, but because it’s the only way we can overcome the essential deficit that exists in this country.

I’m not talking about a budget deficit. I’m not talking about a trade deficit. I’m not talking about a deficit of good ideas or new plans.

I’m talking about a moral deficit. I’m talking about an empathy deficit. I’m taking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother’s keeper; we are our sister’s keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny.

-Barack Obama, 1.20.08 (Youtube link here, or I’ll email you the full text, it’s very good.)

Obama at his best.

I don’t like identity politics as it manifests itself in the popular arena, too much shading and color is lost. I also don’t like it on a theoretical level, it begets the evil it seeks to rid us of. Identify, self-identification, and the choices and groupthink therein are also in my mind an undeniable part of our world today, and will be for some time to come. Insofar as that’s true, I appreciate the discussion of race and gender, in a more frank way, that’s come about in the democratic race in the last few days. (JC Watts and the “republicanos” can get out of the house, it’s not a coincidence the elephants aren’t bringing this.)

Even more, I like that so many people are talking about how we should talk about it.