We had a very similar situation at one point. Someone writing angrty letters to the local papers and threatening to bring in the ACLU. I'm sure the person won't get very far by complaining to the ACLU. Those that say don't be baited are probably right, but in my case I couldn't resist the bait. It actually took a couple of letters back and forth, but in our case the "offended party" backed off and even apologized. Since I took the time to write what I think was a pretty well thought out letter I I figure i might as well share it with the list.
Carl,
Although I am a member of the steering committee that makes policy decisions such as how to best handle Women's night, I am speaking for myself, and not the group right now. I'm offended, and angry by your continued pissing and moaning over this issue. I've volunteered 2 hours out every Tuesday of my life for the past year to open up the shop and help people work on their bikes. I've never turned anyone away, and I've never seen you there once. I've attended countless meetings which are open to the public, and where policy decisions are open for discussion and review. If you had any real interest in how Freeride works, or in making it work better you might have attended one of these meetings and voiced your concerns there. Instead you call up the papers and raise a big stink. I think your more interested in creating drama than creating social change. The volunteers who collectively run Freeride have done more in the past year to make cycling inclusive and accessible to all people in the area regardless of gender, race, income, or physical ability, than you have likely done in your lifetime. Yet you seem to take it as your civic duty to undermine our efforts because one program aimed at making cycling more accessible to women is not inclusive of men.
This program does not exist to exclude anyone, or to punish men. It is a simple fact, and one that would be obvious enough to anyone involved in freeride that there are fewer women who are comfortable with bicycle mechanics than men. We want to do all we can to encourage more women to take an active role in bicycle mechanics and freeride, and we've been told that some women (not all) are more comfortable learning bike mechanics from other women, and without men around. Some of them have had bad experiences where men have made them feel stupid when it comes to mechanical stuff, and though all the guys at Freeride are a bunch of sensitive new age guys, and we'd never dream of making anyone feel stupid for their lack of experience with a wrench, we acknowledge that some women might not be comfortable learning new things with us around. There are 168 hours in a week, and even those of us who spend all our spare time there can manage to make ourself scarce for 2 of those hours. The thing is the shop can only be open when there is a volunteer head mechanic available to supervise. Our male mechanics outnumber female mechanics about 4-1. If we want to be open more, we need more volunteers, and by creating a safe space for women to learn bike mechanics we are increasing the pool of potential volunteers. This benefits everyone and hurts no one. We did not close a shift to men when we created women's night. We opened an additional shift. That shift is run by a volunteer who wanted to run this program in particular. By giving HER time to help other women gain mechanic skills she's giving something to the community, not taking something away. Freeride does a lot of good in our community for women AND men. None of it would happen without the hard work of our volunteers. If the woman running women's night was not running that shift the doors would be open to no one for those two hours. We would love to open the doors more often than we do. All it takes is more volunteers. How do we get more volunteers? By training more people.
The reason I take personal offense at your vitriolic emails is that freeride is not some great big corporation out to fuck the little guy. It's a bunch of little guys like me working together to bring something great to our community. We work hard to make Freeride inclusive. What reward do we get? Only the reward of knowing that our work is appreciated by others in the community. the reward that comes from seeing more people riding bikes, or from teaching someone a new skill that they can use. I do this work, and my friends at freeride do this work, because we believe it is important work and worth doing. Your comments are not constructive. If you want to be a part of the process come work with us. If you just want something to complain about, why not look for some REAL evil in the world, instead of picking on a buncha hippies who just want to help people fix their bikes?
Sincerely,
Matt Brittenham
Bike Nerd
On Jun 17, 2009, at 3:19 PM, Plan B wrote:
Hey y'all,
This is Victor at Plan B down in Hot as Hell New Orleans (the new official name for the city). I just got this email, and it's almost laughable, but I wanna deal with it in by using an accountable and knowledgeable (and perhaps vicious) response. I'd love some ideas. Here's the email, in it's entirety.
/While viewing your website, I have noted that tuesday nights are exclusive to women and transexuals- I hope that you are aware that as a non-profit this constitutes sexual discrimination. If you do not cancel this event, I may refer the situation to the ACLU.
Thank You,
Thomas Taylor
/My gut instinct is to be a jerk. My original response started with the line, " Dear Big Dummy...."
I'm not the best at responding to jerks, so any help would be appreciated.
Thanks y'all!
Overheated hugs and sweaty kisses,
Victor
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