Parleys Canyon Riders: Build Bridges Not Walls

Edificar Puentes, no Muros

(Build Bridges Not Walls)

“Bridge:

…

b : a time, place, or means of connection or transition-building a bridge between the two cultures-the bridge from war to peace.”

--Merriam Webster--

Today the PCR’s allowed Big Man to choose the route (CTR). He insisted we ride north to “experience” a new bridge that opened along the Jordan River Parkway just off North Temple (the following is a link to Salt Lake County’s map of the trial system: http://slco.org/parks/trails/). In case you were unaware, Salt Lake, Weber, Davis and Utah counties have done a fantastic job of planning and developing a pedestrian/bike trail system that connects communities as far east to where 1% er TR lives, to the Jordan River where beaver, deer, and fox roam (see Jordan River Commission’s following link for information about the river: http://jordanrivercommission.com/the-river/). The network also connects communities as far south as Utah Lake (fyi the first European to witness that lake was Father Silvestre Velez de Escalante, in 1776), with communities to the north in Ogden, originally named Fort Buenaventura, which was established in 1846 by a trapper named Miles Goodyear, and which the astute Captain James Brown acquired the very next year from Mexico for a whopping $3,000 (chump change for a guy like Mr. MBA). These communities have rich histories of ever changing cultures.

These days some Americans here talk of building a “really big wall” along our southern border in an attempt to prevent illegal immigration by our brothers and sisters to the south. While protecting borders and development of rational immigration programs are necessary duties of governments, like building bridges the manner in which we go about doing so requires thoughtful planning and a long range vision that we are all visitors on this planet which will be inhabited by generations to come.

Our civilization is a melting pot of new and ever changing cultures. Life is just that way. A wall with never change that fact. Remains of walls constructed by other great, long since gone, are stark reminders that barriers will never stop change. In 122 A.D. the Roman’s commenced construction of Hadrian’s Wall, which stretches across the breadth of Britannia, as its clutch upon world power began to slip. And during its reign the Ming Dynasty rebuilt the Great Wall of China, but its empire is no more. What message does America send to its neighbors by building its wall?

Emma Lazarus wrote the poem “New Colossus”. She gifted her rights to it to an auction organized to raise money for construction of the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. A plaque bearing the poem is posted in the inner wall of that great edifice’s pedestal. The poem expresses a time honored American tradition of offering a bridge to its “golden door” to the “poor” and the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. The entrance way to our great land of opportunity is not hidden for a choice few to enter, but is illuminated by Lady Liberty’s lamp. Lazarus wrote:

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep[,] ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

--Emma Lazarus--

Instead building a wall to shut out our third largest trading partner to the south of our border, let us construct ways of acknowledging the importance of our boundaries, tempered by the recognition of our economic and cultural ties to neighbors. Rather than projecting to the world that we fear our neighbors and feel the need to display power by military parades to those who think we are weak, let us continue in our fine tradition as a beacon to the world of the fruits of liberty. Let us demonstrate the satisfaction of living that comes from the quest for the pursuit of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness that comes from brotherly/sisterly love for which the city that is the cradle of our great civilization was so aptly named.

In the meantime, get off your couches, get on your bikes, and explore the network of trails for which you have paid!

YIPPY SKIPPY