Newton Trails

I know...   Don't go there...  But I can't help peeking online to read comments responding to a local news story, editorial, or letter about trails.  That's one way the internet has changed our media world -- now everyone is part of the story.  And, the comments are telling.

Of course, I most like the ones agreeing with me.  I am human.  But, I also enjoy sincere, thoughtful statements sharing an opposing view or a different take.  It reminds me of a time when we actually gathered and talked as neighbors about things that mattered.  We listened to each other, we aired our differences, and we found ways to work together.

So, there's the good ("you agree with me!"), the bad ("aw, how could you not agree with me!?"), and then, there's the downright ugly.  They're the statements that leave you shaking your head (as another poster said).  For example, this comment to the recent Newton Citizen story about our Newton Trails Walk About series.

"I WOULD LOT RATHER HAVE A TRAIN PASSING THROUGH MY BACKYARD THAN A GROUP OF THUGS BREAKING INTO MY HOUSE WHILE I'M AT WORK..NO TREES OR FENCE IS GOING TO KEEP THEM OUT..YOU BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME!!!"

Setting aside the obvious logical problems with the argument that "no trees or fence is going to keep them out," but apparently steel rails and wooden ties are keeping "them" away today...  I feel sad for someone who either (a) truly believes this or (b) is deliberately exploiting the fears of others.

How ironic I read that same day a blog post by a young father recounting his three-day, 20-mile biking adventure with his seven-year-old daughter on the Erie Canal Trail in upstate New York.  Is she the kind of thug our commenter fears?  Should this father be charged with child endangerment for putting his daughter into such a hostile environment?  From all accounts, it was the trip of a lifetime and a memory father and daughter will cherish as long as they both live.  It was an excursion he could never have attempted with a child that age on today's busy roads.

I've blogged before about other such stories, like the grandmothers, ages 48 to 76, who biked a large portion of the 98 miles making up the combined Silver Comet and Chief Ladiga trails.

Those are the tales that shape my vision and inspire my passion for an interconnected trail system within our county and beyond.  We all have the gift to imagine incredible futures and to play some small role in realizing them.  Sadly, some of us can never break free from our fears of the present to dream about the future.

I can refute crime claims about trails with a mountain of statistics and letters from law enforcement officials touting the benefits of trails.  But, why go there in the first place?  There are a myriad of possible visions for our future in Newton County.  And, I know mine is only one.  But, I also know this:  no worthy ends are found by charting a course running from what we fear.

While I can, and with the support of many, I will do all within my power to create places where children and caring parents create lasting memories and grandmothers and grandfathers find their youth once more.

Some local rail-trail opponents want you to think trails like the Silver Comet in west Georgia or the Chief Ladiga in Alabama are more dangerous than the Wild, Wild West.  They whisper rumors of rampant crime that leave the uninformed thinking trails are a dangerous place.

Sure, we have all the statistics and law enforcement reports to verify trails are safe.  But scaring people is always easier than informing them.  That's why I was delighted this week to have two great stories fall info my lap, each involving grandmothers biking the Silver Comet and Chief Ladiga Trails.  If these women, ages 48 to 76, are not afraid and genuinely enjoy these trails then...  maybe... just maybe... they're safe enough for the rest of us!!!

  I'll let these ladies speak for themselves on what you're missing if you let fearmongers scare you away:

Grandmothers Bike 62-Mile Silver Comet Trail

Read here the October Atlanta Journal-Constitution story about five women, ages 48 to 63, all grandmothers, who biked the full 62 miles of the SCT from Smyrna to the Alabama State Line and then made the return trip as well.

Lawrence septuagenarian completes 98-mile bike ride

In this story, available here, a 76-year-old woman, three daughters, and a friend biked the full 98 miles of the combined Chief Ladiga and Silver Comet Trails from Anniston, AL to Smyrna, GA.

Come on, gang.  Don't let these grannies outdo you 'cause you're scared!

That firm belief asserted by FDR in his first inaugural address at the height of the Great Depression, has been on my mind of late.  Is fear bad?  Some would argue it's a healthy thing that stops us from wandering needlessly into harm's way.  But, FDR went on to describe the fear he sought to tame:  "nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."  And, it's that idea that keeps coming back to me, as I listen to rail-trail opponents who invoke rumors of crime to frighten citizens.

Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror...  It's effective.  And, sometimes, it's well intentioned.  But, while fear can trigger life-preserving behavior, it also has a way of breeding irrational actions that are ultimately counter to our best interests.

For examples of irrational fear, I think back to those horrific days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  For weeks, months, and even years after seeing planes used as weapons of destruction, many Americans would not fly on a commercial airliner.  And, yet, among the 2,977 victims killed that terrible day, only 246 died on airplanes.  The vast majority -- 2,731 people -- were killed doing something most of us do every day...  putting in a days work...  in a high-rise office tower, at the police or fire department, or at the Pentagon.  And, yet, no one spoke openly about fearing to go back to work.  It was the idea of air travel that gave us pause.

I'll never criticize anyone for being afraid.  It's not a reaction we can easily control.  But, because it is often irrational, it serves us well to question fear.  And, when it comes to opposing a walking or biking trail because of crime concerns, that is an irrational fear.

Consider the sad story of Jennifer Ewing, a 54-year-old woman murdered on the Silver Comet Trail in Paulding County in 2006.   News coverage of that incident sent shock waves through the community of trail users in that area.  It was a sobering reminder bad things can happen.  But they can happen anywhere.  That murder was on a bike trail.  But, there were 600 other homicides committed in Georgia that same year:  They happened in mall parking lots, on the streets, and very often in homes.  In our own community, in 2006, we had a tragic murder in a fast food parking lot.  But we, knew the cause of that tragedy was a madman behind the wheel of a car, not the place where  the crime occurred.

In a world where evil doers exist, caution is a must.  But, irrational fear puts us in greater danger, not less.  Some are afraid to walk or bike on a trail, and yet we:

• Get into a car and drive on Georgia's streets and highways where 7,842 people have died in crashes over the past five years.
• Walk alongside and across Georgia roads where 749 pedestrians were killed in automobile crashes over those same five years.
• Bicycle on busy roadways where an average of 20 Georgia cyclists are killed in car collisions each year.
  

Worse than any of these, though, is when we let fear convince us not to walk or bike at all.  Consider these findings based on causes of death reported by the Centers for Disease Control in 2005:

• Heart disease, cancer, and stroke accounted for 67% of all deaths.
• Accidents accounted for less than 6%.
• Assault and homicide were the cause of less than 1%.
• The average American is 82 times more likely to die from a medical condition such as heart disease, cancer, stroke, or respiratory ailments, than by assault or homicide.  And, the majority of these medical conditions can be mitigated by regular exercise.

When we allow an irrational fear to discourage us from building better places to exercise, we actually put ourselves and our children at greater risk of an early death.  With our state ranking the second worst for childhood obesity rates, and our county being among the worst in Georgia, there is a trend here we must reverse.  Children born today will likely be the first generation of Americans to live shorter lives than their parents.

To borrow the words of  FDR, we cannot let "nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror paralyze needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."