Remarks of Hugh Esco on the 20th Anniversary of the founding of the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign

My, that twenty years went rather fast.

I really wish I could be with you this evening. ABC counts as
one of the concrete successes I can point to from a lifetime
of political and community activism. Victories and success
make for far better war stories than the usual reports of the
repeated bruising we endure in our work to reclaim our lives
from the corporations.

Two decades ago, our nation was on the verge of beginning
its longest war in our history against the people of Iraq (a
war which spanned six terms of four Presidents, costing the
lives of millions, including half a million children during
the Clinton administration's economic boycott). A handful
of cyclsts who knew exactly what it takes to avoid spilling
blood for oil came together to create a vehicle for pushing
for those necessary reforms in local transportation planning.

We knew then and we know now that the reforms we advocated
would do more than prevent unneeded bloodshed in imperial wars.
Building a bicycle and pedestrian friendly transportation system
would dial back our contribution to global warming; reduce our
reliance on foreign, finite and unsustainable energy sources and
other natural resources; improve our health; prevent obesity;
and knit together our communities by providing the sort of
public safety no police force can offer, by putting our eyes
on the street; slowing us down enough to meet our neighbors
and building the relationships which sustain community.

In our youthful naivite, we thought that wars for oil were a
new thing. It took William Engdahl's 2004 book, "A Century
of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order"
to make clear that the European and US Empires have been waging
war for oil since they spread that story about the arch-duke's
assassination to cover for the slaughter designed to prevent
the Kaiser from completing the Berlin-Bhagdad Railroad,
relieving Germany of its reliance on Britain for the fuel
needed for industrialization.

And just this year the war-lords running our nation carried
their imperial designs seeking to control the oil reserves
of Libya and the interior of Africa. Our petro-addiction
drives us to support the apartheid occupation of Palestine,
and to ignore the obvious racism of our foreign policy.

Occupy Everything offers us hope that people coming together
can say enough is enough. We can reclaim the governance
of our lives from the banksters and war mongers; from those
who would destroy the capacity of this globe to support our
grandchildren's grandchildren.

And the Atlanta Bicycle Campaign has offered the transportation,
community and land-use policy leadership needed to move forward
such an agenda.

I resigned half way through my third term on the ABC Board to
free my energy for building the Georgia Green Party. Creating a
electoral vehicle for advancing our agenda independent of the
corporate parties has proven far more difficult than creating
a non-profit advocacy group. But both formations are vital to
a just and sustainable future. I remain grateful to all those
who followed those of us who served on our founding Board to
build and sustain this organization. Your work is vital and
appreciated. Please keep pushing. Those streets are ours,
paid for with our tax dollars and the work of making them safe
for pedestrians and cyclists remains ahead of us.

Thank you for carrying this torch for us all.

-- Hugh Esco, Secretary
Georgia Green Party

founding Board Member
Atlanta Bicycle Campaign