Heather > Recent Status Updates

“Eve would want us to remember her resistance…”

(but) “He was one of the good guys.”

“We can create a world in which cars are not necessary for full enfranchisement in the community.”

Parking cars on the street overnight was prohibited in New York City until 1950!!

“Building our cities and towns to accommodate cars first and people as an afterthought, if at all, has created a world in which many of us never have to think about what anyone else needs or wants.”

Donald Appleyard, author of 1981 book, LIVABLE STREETS, was killed by a speed drunk driver the next year.

“…previous studies suggesting that increased access to transit may increase physical activity among transit users and may lead to decreased healthcare’s expenditures.”

“America is famous for its ‘rugged individualism,’ a cowboy-tough attitude that puts responsibility on each of us to take care of ourselves, rather than acknowledging that people need help from each other to live happy, safe, and productive lives.”

“The researchers said that while such behavior is technically illegal, ‘most bicyclists can generally be described as rational individuals trying to function safely and efficiently given the context and norms of where they live and the transportation system in front of them.’”

Moral panic = a majoritarian backlash to social progress that benefits minority groups.

“It’s simple to say cyclists should obey traffic laws just like‘everyone else,’ but it’s sometimes hard to notice that nobody else obeys traffic laws.”

“…but today is not the day.

Today, April 2, 1992.”

“I have died too many deaths that were not mine.”

“Tomorrow belongs to those of us who conceive of it belonging to us all.”

“Even when you know it’s coming, a death is a shock. Shock as in ‘electrical shock’.”

“I have tried to learn my anger’s usefulness to me as well as its limitations.”

“I’m not very good at being ashamed of myself.”

“Erie is the shallowest Great Lake.”

“I never eviscerate interviewers unless they attempt to eviscerate me first.”

“In the end, it comes down to a simple kernel of truth:

We cannot give up.”

“The only option is to keep going.”

“Never bet against America. Refuse to believe that government doesn’t work.”

“We can’t let the fight for democracy become drudgery; we have to prepare ourselves for it joyfully without taking it any less seriously.”

“If an American president tried to stop elections entirely, the public outcry would be swift.”

Vance, quoting Orwell’s 1984:

“‘In a way, the world-view of the Oarty imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening…’

“Now we see the consequences of preserving the fiction that all the people on both sides of the political divide we’re operating in good faith. You can be polite to everyone, or you can save the Republic. But you cannot do both.”

“Often it’s the people who populate them who are flawed, not the institutional framework itself.”

“When the public perpetuates narratives that the institutions are broken and talks about walking away from them, it plays into his hands and makes his ascension to power that much easier. The path to autocracy is littered with battered and broken institutions. If you want to preserve democracy, fight for the institutions.”

“The people in the room think that he is not an American, but he is more American than almost any of them. He has discovered America and his spirit is the spirit of pioneers. He is furious with America because it does not realize its strength and beauty and power.”

“The time-honored tradition of Americans is to stand together.”