Rolling Backward

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We keep rolling forward.

Our date with the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration: Friday, June 14, 2024.

The National Park Service—which made an exception to open the bridge for us, out of respect for our 16,000 mile Ride, of which you have been a part—asked us to cross the bridge at 7:30 AM. They don’t want our visit to distract tourists who arrive by ferry beginning at 9:15.

We are happy to oblige.

Meanwhile, we’ve spread the word in New York City about human rights.

Some of our latest photos and where we took them:

View toward New Jersey
The banner attacks America’s foundational principle of equal justice under law. (The unanimous jury wasn’t a Jim Crow Mississippi panel that acquitted a laughing murderer in 10 minutes. The jury was agreed to by the defendant’s expensive freely chosen lawyers.)

Hold this thought about lack of respect for the law.

The World Trade Center reaches the clouds.
L to R: Manhattan Bridge, DUMBO, Brooklyn Bridge
The East River Bikeway is under reconstruction; hence a several mile detour up Allen Street and First Avenue.
Looking at Queens from Manhattan, across the East River and Roosevelt Island
Diatom replicas cast in concrete
Arieana is a child welfare specialist who helps the city keep children safe. She and Jeffrey chatted over granola bars about human rights.
A Washington Heights resident tries out the Sprint 26. Another passerby asked for a ride, then laughed and wished us well.
Highbridge Park
Photos deceive. This was on a very steep downhill.
The Little Red [Jeffrey’s Hook] Lighthouse below the Big Gray [George Washington] Bridge.
L to R: Manhattan, Hudson River, Jersey City
For us, every day is Bike Day. For Octavia and Joseph, it’s a rare treat organized by their employer.
They work for Breaking Ground, a nonprofit that creates supportive housing for the homeless.

We agree with Octavia and Joseph. In our wealthy country, housing should be a human right. (Ethics aside, providing people in distress with decent housing is cheaper than putting them in homeless shelters, jails, and hospital beds.)

Breaking Ground helps our country move forward.

Meanwhile, our national government is moving us backward.

All people have the right to ask for asylum—that is, for refuge from persecution—under United States law and international law.

Our government does not respect its (our) own laws.

Our government is making it difficult or impossible for putative refugees to exercise this right.

Our government has declared that it will bar many lawful asylum applications.

Our government provides too few resources to adjudicate new and pending asylum casees, which won’t be decided for many years. Delay encourages people with weak cases to game the system. Delay leaves in painful limbo, and endangers, people with strong cases.

Our government spends needless billions on jailing innocent migrants.

And our government provides no lawful immigration pathway for migrants fleeing poverty and crime—people who will strengthen our country if only we let them.

Jeffrey and I pedal bicycles. Push the pedals forward and our machine advances. Backpedal and our wheels disengage; we roll to a stop and tip over.

America is backpedaling.

Tipping over.

Joey’s world is turning upside down.

Dare we hope for better?

At West 81st and Broadway, we stopped at an office supply store to recycle a laser cartridge. A heavily tattooed New Yorker, his complexion a handsome dark contrast to Jeffrey’s sorry sun-scarred grayish pink, saw our sign …

… gave Jeffrey a big smile, offered his hand, and said

Thank you for your service.

Jeffrey was moved.

Too moved to ask to take his photo, and that of his lovely companion.

We don’t seek praise.

We seek impact.

When someone notices—sees us, and sees what we are trying to do—it makes up for a lot of what we’ve gone through on these Rides.

If our government would notice—see us, hear us, see and hear YOU when you call on our leaders to do what’s right—it all would be worth it.

We’ll be in touch again after we visit Ellis Island on Flag Day.

Meanwhile, if you haven’t yet, please donate to Human Rights First.

1 thought on “Rolling Backward”

  1. Good luck for Friday- can’t wait to hear all about it. Love the facts and photos of the Diatoms. You had a number of moving encounters in NYC. You’ll have to think of another fabulous project when this ride comes to a halt! lots of love, Shoshana

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