"REASON AND TOLERANCE ARE MY RELIGIONS" (STEPHEN FRY)

But:

"If we are absolutely tolerant, and do not defend the tolerant society against its assailants, the tolerant will be annihilated, and with them, tolerance itself."

This is what I found written on a wall at the Museum of Tolerance on Avenida Juárez.

So yes, we have museums for this all over the world, so that specimens like the radio host ANGEL VERDUGO, who does honor to his surname ("verdugo" means executioner), can be understood for what he is: a man whose CRIMINAL COMMENTARY and open invitation to those who, like him, lack common sense, lack empathy, and display notoriously antisocial criminal tendencies toward the rest of us who are simply trying to coexist in some kind of harmony and make our world a little better each day.

I am one of those people who has supported the bicycle program in the D.F. since it began, and I am, of course, a registered member.

I will always defend causes where the vulnerable are clearly the victims. I'm not going to wade into whether we Mexicans, taken as a whole, whether cyclists or pedestrians or drivers or whatever, are civilized or not, because that's a broad subject and we all know it's one steeped in a lack of rules and a lack of civic culture for getting along in public space.

But that is no reason to justify our neuroses and criminal pathologies, because if we did, we'd end up building furnaces to cremate everyone we happen not to get along with.

Mr. ANGEL VERDUGO not only embodies all of these pathologies, but he has the nerve to work in communications, of all fields, the one that is supposed to be about culture, empathy, and fairness. What exactly can a person like this communicate to our already battered society?

For this reason, I would rather invite you all to turn off the devices that broadcast news mixed with lies (most of them, let's be honest) so that people who only enjoy the sound of their own voice will finally, mercifully, go quiet.

We Mexicans are such a tolerant society that perhaps we ought to copy out that quote from the Museum of Tolerance the way our teachers used to make us write out sentences as punishment for misbehaving in school, so we never forget it. Because even though tolerance, the idea behind the quote I opened with, is the foundation of a coherent and empathetic society, it cannot be taken to the extremes we seem to practice here.

You only have to look at protest movements around the world and then compare them with what we Mexicans do here under the same circumstances.

But despite all the problems and all the negative labels attached to Mexican society, I will say this: yes, we can change, and especially if those of us who understand that change will not come from the top down, that it has to come from below, from the people, stand together.

Because it has been proven, time and again, that nothing is more powerful than people united, and so I invite you: LET'S COME TOGETHER TO MAKE THIS MEXICO OF OURS A PLACE WORTHY OF ADMIRATION!

We cyclists are willing to follow every traffic rule, as long as we are respected for what we are: people on two wheels, no motor, no pollution, and no protection. Even when we do something wrong, that does not give any individual the right to commit a criminal act against us.

Much the same as when you cross the street on foot.

EVERYONE, even the most die-hard driver, gets out of their vehicle (whatever it is, motorized or not) sooner or later and becomes a pedestrian.

Take a good look at how much respect pedestrians get.

Since we can't overhaul the non-rules of traffic overnight, and since most of us are not PSYCHOPATHS and therefore cannot simply eliminate parasites like Mr. ANGEL VERDUGO, I invite you to apply what I consider the golden law of right-of-way on our city streets, one that has served me well my entire life:

1. PEDESTRIANS HAVE RIGHT OF WAY EVEN WHEN THEY BREAK TRAFFIC RULES (no vehicle of any kind may run them over)

2. TWO-WHEELED VEHICLES WITHOUT MOTORS (wheelchairs, bicycles of all kinds, etc.)

3. TWO-WHEELED VEHICLES WITH MOTORS (motorcycles, three-wheelers, motorized scooters, etc.)

4. Cars, trucks, buses, semi-trailers, etc. losing priority in proportion to their size and power!

You can live in anarchy, but only with knowledge, culture, and above all, EMPATHY. Bakunin said as much, and said it clearly.

Sanuk