Dear Director Feltri,
some left-wing exponents are calling for her resignation from the Regional Council following the words she said regarding cyclists, who only like them when they get hit. I, however, understood his provocation and his speech very well. And I wonder when we will realize that the massive presence of cyclists in big cities constitutes a road danger. Their safety is at risk, but not only that. Accidents are frequent because those who get on two wheels or a scooter think they don’t have to observe any rules and that the road belongs to them.
You have all my solidarity.
Nicola Girotti
Dear Nicola,
I thank you for this statement of support, which I welcome and appreciate although I don’t mind that the left is demanding my resignation. All he does is ask her about this or that, no centre-right political exponent is immune from the requests for resignation made by the Democratic Party and so on, since for progressives being in opposition consists of this: challenging the person on the basis of any technicality that is transformed into a cause of scandal, of indignation, of revolution. And when I use this last term I do not exaggerate, since it is subversive to want at any cost that an individual elected by the sovereign people withdraws and renounces the role and duties assigned to him by the voters because with a little word he has offended the sensibilities far too acute of the radical-chic. Should I resign because pincopallo asks for it? No, I’ll keep my job, thanks for the proposal, I’ll move on.
Not only do I not correct what I said but I reiterate it. In Milan, cycle paths represent death traps. They are drawn on the asphalt without criterion and their lack of logic does nothing but heighten the conviction, in those who use the bicycle to move or even the scooter, that they do not have to observe any basic road rules, such as – and I mention the more down to earth ones – respect for precedence. I find bicycles and scooters to the right and left of my car, so that when the light turns green and I am about to turn right, I frequently see cyclists speeding past me, as if they were throwing themselves at the cars. They go through red lights, they walk in front of cars, slowing down traffic, even going the wrong way in the middle of the street. However, it seems that no one has the courage to say that even those who use these means of transport are required to respect the highway code.
Cyclists should not be touched, they should not be challenged, scolded, scolded, called to order, but only pampered and praised.
The reason? The reason is purely ideological: there is the belief that they will save the planet from global warming, they are considered virtuous subjects, left-wing people, not rude and ignorant like those who are instead referred to as “fascists” only because they vote for the right. Cyclists are sanctified because they fight, sweat and pedal against the collapse of the planet, against the Apocalypse, which is estimated to arrive within a few years due to our recklessness, capitalism, consumerism, machines, progress, greed of the West. It’s a shame that to date the widespread use of bicycles has not improved air quality but has led to an increase in the number of deaths and injuries of those who travel on eco-friendly two-wheelers on city streets.
Far from wishing death to cyclists, mine was perhaps too macabre a joke, therefore out of place, strong, but now nothing can be said anymore, everything arouses disapproval. We stand there weighing every syllable in search of any excuse to hit the person who pronounces it.
We have acquired a taste for indignation, for the media trial, for slaughter. It is the triumph of an exasperated, ostentatious, intransigent moralism, which is not a symptom of ethical progress, if anything of obscurantism.
Thanks again, dear Nicola.