A group of veterans is slated to bicycle down Route 66 in Illinois next week to protest the Iraq War and America’s dependence on foreign oil, reports the Bloomington Pantagraph.
Ride for Peace will make varying stops along the route between the Vietnam Veterans Against the War annual convention in Chicago and the Veterans for Peace convention in St. Louis.
Ride organizer Lance Anderson, 60, a U.S. Navy veteran and retired U.S. postal carrier from Santa Barbara, Calif., said the ride emphasizes how anyone can take action to undercut what he sees as the main reason U.S. troops were sent to Iraq – the “American addiction to oil.”
Using bikes instead of vehicles for short trips can reduce gasoline consumption enough to offset the oil the U.S. gets from the Middle East, said Anderson […]
“It’s really because we can see that oil and energy are an intricate part of this war (in Iraq),” said Anderson, who served in Vietnam in 1967-68. “It’s probably not coincidence this is one of the largest crude oil reserves in the world.
“We want to take individual responsibility. … It’s a demonstration of personal action that we think can end war or at least make it easier to end the war and bring troops home,” he said.
“Everybody is waiting for the magic bullet, the right hybrid (car) or bio-fuel. But, if everyone would slow down and ride a bike when they can, they would offset the oil we get from the Middle East. … The new bio-fuels get plenty of press, but the fact an individual can make a difference doesn’t get much,” he said.
A few years ago, such a bike ride would have been unlikely. An event such as this shows how badly the war in Iraq has been going.