Tag: pickup truck

Education School Security Orders CO Teen to Remove American Flags From Pickup Truck

On By Michel McDonaldIn News, PoliticalLeave a comment

Imagine if you will, a scenario where you are living in a country like the United States where you are told you are not allowed to be patriotic because it might upset someone. That is what happened to a Colorado Junior at his high school.

He was caught squealing his tires in the high school parking lot and got into trouble by the security guard who suspended his parking privileges for 2 weeks but then she had the nerve to tell him to take down the 2 American flags he had waving from the back of his pickup truck. She told him that it might upset someone.

If I were living in Mexico and I saw the Mexican flag waving proudly from a Mexican’s truck, I would not be offended because I am in Mexico. If I were living in Italy and I saw an Italian flag waving proudly from a Italian’s truck, I would not be offended because I am in Italy. And if I were living in ANY other country over the planet it would be the same thing. I would be proud to wave the flag of the country that I live in, even if I wasn’t born there.

What makes this security guard think that being proud of your country would upset people? It makes no sense. I think this security guard needs to re-evaluate her patriotism before she tries to tell someone they cannot be patriotic. In fact, I’d venture to say that she doesn’t deserve to have a job where she is in charge of telling people that they cannot wave the American flag in the United States.

Heck, the school itself waves an American flag on the flagpole, what makes her think that it’s not ok to wave a flag from your vehicle?

I’m sorry, it just upsets me to hear this kind of thing especially with September 11th coming at the end of this week.

For some reason I couldn’t amplify the video in this article so please follow the link below to visit the website that this article comes from to see the video. It takes seeing the video to get the full story, besides the text from the story that is.

Amplify’d from www.theblaze.com

Education School Security Orders CO Teen to Remove American Flags From Pickup Truck

Jeremy Stoppel is man enough to admit that he deserved getting a ticket for squealing his tires in the school parking ticket. But he has a problem with the order that came down from school security — no more American Flags. He told KMGH-TV:

“She said I should take my flags down. She said this is a school that focuses on diversity and she doesn’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable,” Stoppel said. “How do you suppose anyone would feel uncomfortable in America with an American flag? That’s where I’m confused.”

Jeremy and his dad told the station they are looking for an apology:

“To me, she’s just threatening him, hoping that she can just bully him so he’ll just take ‘em down and just put his tail between his legs and say, ‘I’m done. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.’ And that’s just not gonna happen,” said Dan Stoppel, Jeremy’s father.

The principal is promising to look into the matter. Stay tuned.

Read more at www.theblaze.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/9wo9

Is Bakersfield A Safe Place To Ride A Bicycle?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, CyclingLeave a comment

Is Bakersfield a safe place to ride a bicycle?

This article was in today’s Bakersfield Californian newspaper.

In my opinion it is only safe to ride a bicycle if you are a defensive rider.  If you are watching where you are going, looking both left and right, never crossing the street unless you have the green light (or in some cases walk signal).  Never riding on the wrong side of the road then crossing while a car is turning left (which happened to me).

This one time I was leaving the bike path and I was crossing the street and this pickup truck was pulling out in front of me while he was looking right at me.  He nearly ran me over.  This was about 10am in the morning too so it’s not like he was drinking and driving… that I know of at least.

I have a little mirror that is attached to my helmet and I’m constantly looking at it to see the traffic behind me so I know what is coming at me.

Now I cannot say that it is 100% safe to ride as early as I do because even at 4:30am there are probably still some drunk drivers out there but usually when I ride that early there are maybe 1 or 2 cars every 10 minutes so it’s pretty safe where and when I ride.

You also have to consider the fact that I’m not riding in the busy streets along with traffic.  I start out in a neighborhood and I’m pretty much only in neighborhoods until I get to the bike path so there is not that much danger of getting hit.  And I know a route that gets me to the mall and to Target where it’s through neighborhoods and I never have to drive with traffic.

So is Bakersfield a safe place to ride a bicycle?  I think it is during the morning or during the daytime IF you aren’t driving in traffic where there are no bike paths or where cars are parked right in the bike path.  If you try to ride through neighborhoods then you are safe.  But if you drive alongside cars then there is never a guarantee that you are ever safe.  Even if you are crossing the street you aren’t ever safe because there are always reports of people getting killed while crossing the street.  Is it safe for me to ride here?  Yes, because I am a defensive rider and I pick the best safest routes.

If you live in a city that you aren’t sure where the safest routes are, why not just go to your favorite map website, I go to google maps and I map out my route then I adjust the route so I am going through neighborhoods then I print it out and hold it while riding through that neighborhood so I learn it so the next time I have to go that way I will remember.  And if I don’t remember then I print it out again (if I threw the old map out that is).