So why do I ride? I ride because way back when I was a wee impressionable kid of 19 I broke my mother's heart when I decided not to go to medical school. I felt then, as I do now, that the American medical system is heavily flawed. I wasn't comfortable becoming part of a system that ignores those most in need simply because they don't have enough money to placate the drug companies. I wasn't comfortable becoming part of a system that only treats symptoms, often times long after its too late for any real healing to be done. I wasn't comfortable with the institutionalized discrimination, and inbred sense of disdain so many doctors seemed to hold for their patients. Of course, being 19 I wasn't coherent enough to state it that way, and simply told my mother I was moving to Atlanta to be a professional wrestler.
I won't bore you with the lengthy account of what happened in Atlanta, or the strange and varied circumstances that brought me to Los Angeles. Looking back sometimes I'm not entirely sure myself, but here I am. I had heard about AIDS Life Cycle (ALC) first from reading the journal of
fd_midori I remember thinking "Wow, cycling from San Francisco to Los Angeles. That's crazy!" I remember thinking how much I admired the courage of everyone involved, and how I'd like to participate one day, time and money allowing. Well, the next year I had a pretty good year financially, but in mid-July I was hit by a truck while riding my bike back home from running errands. The driver crushed my left arm, and I was left with a crippling fear of traffic, an inability to ride (devastating to me, since I live in Los Angeles with no car, and in fact at the time didn't even have a driver's license), and an urgent sense of my own mortality. I knew I needed to stop complaining about things, but not taking steps to remedy them. I knew I needed to do something positive to both get me back on the road, and make a statement about what I believed. I knew it was time to do something small, yet epic.So this time, when I saw the ALC booth at the Hollywood Farmer's Market, I took a pamphlet. I thought about it for a very short period, but I knew this was what was in store for me. Hundreds of cyclists, hundreds of miles, and millions of dollars raised for prevention, education, and to provide low and no cost medication to anyone living with HIV or AIDS. Unfortunately, I suffered some continuing health problems from my accident. When ALC 5 finally rolled around they were not fully resolved and I was restricted by my doctor to only riding half days. Still, thanks to my friends and family I raised just over $2,500 and with some 1800 other cyclists (who raised over $8 million in total) and 300 odd roadies (the number was odd, not the roadies... although... <3<3)is wrong. Children are being denied access to accurate age appropriate information that could mean the difference between a long healthy life and a tragically foreshortened one. Mothers are still losing children to this disease. Sisters, brothers, lovers, friends are being denied benefits, being denied assistance, being denied help. People are dying because they can not keep up with the thousands of dollars their medicine costs. Our government in slashing funding in order to continue killing people over seas. 40,000 new infections occur in this country each year alone, and over 10,000 of them are teenagers. Many as young as 13. What we have accomplished is such a small drop in the face of the vastness of need. But even a twig can turn an avalanche. And to the thousands of people who walk through the doors of the LAGLC each day, I know I've helped make a real step towards a better world.
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