Inclusion

"Love is about all the changes you make and not just three small words."  - Frank Turner

Equality and inclusion when it comes to LOVE: now legal in all 50 states.
For shits and giggles, here's the link to said revelation on Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/06/26/supreme-court-same-sex-couples-can-marry-in-all-50-states/.
Because Fox News is having a bit of a down week, and they could use all the traffic they can get, I imagine.

Mind you, we're still talking about an abomination in the eyes of the Lord according to most modern, outdated religious texts, but fuck it, we will take what we can get for now, and it's been a good week, so let's not get greedy.

As a bike blogger, the link that I'm trying to make between the federal legalization of same sex marriage and riding is pretty obscure. Ditto that for the legalization of Marijuana.  Ditto that for universal health care.  Even if politics is not a pendulum, at the very least, these things come and go, and it's hard to feel too settled in with all of this newfound inclusiveness and tolerance and taking care of each other for fear that, soon enough, the rug will be yanked out from under us, like 26er tires or 8 speed drivetrains.  Nothing's ever quite good enough - at least not for long - and that's fine.

But listen to that Frank Turner bit a few times on this fine Friday, go for a big, hard ride in the rain with your best friends, drink a beer or two, and consider the nature of inclusion for a moment.  That ride you just went on, riding a $5,000 mountain bike, with your mid-to-upper class heterosexual white friends, is pretty representative of our sport which, try as it may, is still way, way short on the kind of diversity and inclusiveness that I think most of us would profess to subscribe to.

Camping out at the Giro D'Ville with all the best people I know.  Except for the black ones, gay ones, and people without $200 to blow on recreation.  Wait, What? 

Ask yourself a tough question, and prepare to not be super comfortable with the honest answer, because you might not like what you have to say: Why don't you ride bikes with someone who is gay?

A vote for equality is one thing.  Bravo supreme court.  Thanks for not completely fucking that up.  But an email that says, hey, come ride with us, is where the change actually happens.

The world is different now.
But are we?

Up, up, up.