Letter from Madison
Colin,
Your videos on attacks along bike trails helped me the other day. I live in a Wisconsin town of about 15,000 that is around an hour and a half-hour from the Twin Cities. I was on a bike ride on our bike trail last week, came around a bend and there were three black teenagers standing in the middle of the trail looking up and down the trail. I ride faster than most and did not have time to turn around so I accelerated even faster as I approached them. The more muscular kid looked me up and down, a look I’ve seen before when criminals are looking for someone to jack. He moved aside and I flew by.
I had just passed by two joggers a mile back and I knew at least one of them would be running in to these kids. You’ll probably say this was dumb, but instead of bypassing the kids when I got to the end of the trail and had to turn around to get back home, I slowed to a pace so that when I turned around and got back to these kids, that jogger would be there. I was worried he was going to get attacked.
After I turned around and rode back, there were the kids in the same place, looking side-to-side up and down the trail. I was flying even faster this time and as I passed by the kids, the muscular one said something to me. Just ahead, around the bend, I came up on the jogger. He must’ve turned around when he came around the bend and saw the kids standing there. I pulled off the trail a mile ahead and called the cops and told them there were some kids up to no good on the bike trail. They said they’d send out a deputy. I never heard back from them.
We’re a college town that is “down with the cause.” The university removed a very old painting in one of the buildings that depicted a French fur trader from the 1600s because it’s an example of white male colonialism, of course.
BTW, check out some of the Madison School Board meetings from up here in Wisconsin. We’re seeing a lot of the same stuff you document in schools elsewhere happening in the capital city.
