| "Dirt Rag": keepin' it real for the dirt
June 20, 2010
[$3 for sample issue.]
This issue of "DR" highlights Georgia and its main IMBA Epic trail, giving the history and lowdown and a ride report. But it branches out far and wide in Georgia from that take-off point.
Other major highlights include an overview of bottom brackets and of bunny-hopping.
But back to Georgia... A cool thing about a big-budget mag like "DR" is that they can dig in deeper into a topic. The Georgia report is a dandy. It was neat to learn the Cherokee roots of many of their trails. I mean, I knew about this kind of thing, but it's good to be reminded of it. Like, a friend of mine had a tree behind his house in Pennsylvania with Indian trail markings cut into it. The Epic trail in Georgia is partly on the "Trail of Tears." It's a brief part of the article intro, but it struck me.
We might not always appreciate the various phases of the US ruination of Indians. The Cherokee were acculturating to the Euro impact in the early 1800's, with roads, schools, churches, written alphabet -- but when gold was discovered on their land and they were simply kicked off. Easier for the rich guys, that way. We might tend to think of the "Indian problem" as a one-phase situation, but, no, it had many stages of increasing guilt and crime. I'm sure that if it were legal or possible for Fat Cats and Powerbrokers to kick ANYONE off land they wanted at any stage in history (today!), they'd do it. In the case of the Indians, the justice could be bought and so they did it. Who cares if the people died. Remember, the Fat Cats STILL don't care if YOU die. Safety is a FORCED issue in the workplace. Think mines and oil rigs, eh? Sure, Henry Ford voluntarily put in the first safety rules and showed how safety increases profits -- but he did it by limiting his workers to one position and few motions. Would HE have worked like that? What about "do unto others"? --It's an even simpler rule than "make a profit." Of course, workers then got repetitive stress injuries and went INSANE in such a setting. Shortsighted greed rules the business day unless an englightened culture stands in the way. Anyway, I think that kind of digression and background is good to know as it touches on things like mt-biking. It's all connected. Our trails sometimes have a history, don't they.
Sub = 7 issues for $20.
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