Saturday we went down to the Village for dinner and drinks and afterwards we hopped on the M20 bus to get back home via 8th Avenue. When we got off we turned onto West 53rd Street and were a bit startled to see a couple of rows of Harleys all parked neatly right on the sidewalk with only inches between them, almost nested like spoons. As we headed toward 7th Avenue we kept seeing more and more motorcycles parked and unattended. There were hundreds of them taking up the whole intersection. Sunday morning I Googled to find out what was going on. It turned out that that what we saw was just a small part of a huge group consisting of 1,000 cyclists riding to raise money for the families of the first responders to the 9/11 attacks. This is something that our Congress could not manage to do recently. Somehow setting aside money for this cause is not beyond politics. They start the ride in Pennsylvania then on to Washington DC and finally to Ground Zero in New York for a total of 455 miles stopping at each crash site. This is the tenth annual ride growing from 200 riders the first year. The group is called America’s 9/11 Foundation and you can go to their site if you want to help.
On Sunday they all gathered up for the final leg to the World Trade Center site. Unfortunately a group of 500 protesters chose to take advantage of the bikers’ schedule to gather at the same time to steal the spotlight away from a non-partisan positive cause to get attention for their cause of hate and bigotry. Yes, they were there to protest the building of the Muslim community center two blocks away disregarding the fact that Muslims also died in the World Trade Center and that there is already a long established mosque just four blocks away. To me this is not much different than the protests of the Westboro Baptist Church and disrespects the many Americans who have laid down their lives in the hopes of making things better in Muslim countries. I will never understand all this divisiveness.
On Sunday they all gathered up for the final leg to the World Trade Center site. Unfortunately a group of 500 protesters chose to take advantage of the bikers’ schedule to gather at the same time to steal the spotlight away from a non-partisan positive cause to get attention for their cause of hate and bigotry. Yes, they were there to protest the building of the Muslim community center two blocks away disregarding the fact that Muslims also died in the World Trade Center and that there is already a long established mosque just four blocks away. To me this is not much different than the protests of the Westboro Baptist Church and disrespects the many Americans who have laid down their lives in the hopes of making things better in Muslim countries. I will never understand all this divisiveness.
It is funny to think of how the image of the biker has changed over the years from the violent gang thug Hell's Angels to the benevolent protector and doer of good deeds.
I was able to snap off a few pictures from our window in the morning before they quietly rumbled away in the rain.
I was able to snap off a few pictures from our window in the morning before they quietly rumbled away in the rain.
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