I just received this from a local riding group list:

Open Letter to the Tulsa World
Posted by: "atwheelsy" atwheelsy@yahoo.com atwheelsy
Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:49 pm (PDT)


On Tuesday, three friends were hit while riding their bikes on Hwy 51. Two were killed.

Subsequently, there were several stories in the Tulsa World about that tragic event.

Attached to these stories were comments by some very angry people about how bicyclists, some how, deserve it, or are just asking for it.

I have drafted the attached letter (See: below w/o formatting) to send to the editor.

I would like for those that wish to sign their names with me on this letter to let me know (Okpeloton@yahoo. com) before I submit it to the TW editor.

Please forward to whom ever you think may want to be a part of this.

If you wish to donate to a memorial fund for Matt and Christa, click on
the link below to go to a Paypal account set up for them. Donations will
be handed over to the two families to offset costs of bills associated
with this tragedy.

http://tinyurl. com/nwqcen

You can also go to any local Bank of Oklahoma branch and donate in person
to the Edmonds & Voss Memorial Fund

Please forward to any other folks as you see fit.

Body of Letter:

On May 29-31, the Tulsa Tough Ride and Race thrilled audiences with grueling bike racing through the heart of our fair city and Herculean rides around surrounding communities. There was even a townie ride for families to take part. The response from audiences, racers and riders was nothing short of ecstatic about the future for bicycles in and around Tulsa.
So that's why the events of this past Tuesday are so hard to fathom than they would normally be.
Three people were exercising on Highway 51 in Sand Springs, not only their bodies but their right to ride on the thoroughfares of Oklahoma. They had as much right to be there as anybody else according to Oklahoma Statutes.
They simply chose to ride a bicycle rather than in an automobile.
Then someone used their car to kill two of them while injuring the third.
There have been allegations that alcohol or other substances may have been a contributing factor in this tragedy. Open containers of alcohol were found in the SUV.
Now we await the blood tests of the driver to determine if further criminal charges are warranted.
In the multitude of stories written in your paper since that event, there have been a slew of comments in your web edition about the lawlessness of bicycles and that those that choose to ride a bike "have it coming". The comments are sometimes unaware of the most basic precepts of traffic law while others have been seething in anger at bicyclists while ignoring that the only crime alleged has been that of the driver's.
Lost amongst the vitriolic comments about bicycles were three victims. I chose not to include the driver as a victim as many feel that she committed the worst crime imaginable and furious she has bonded out of jail, free to commit the same heinous act again.
Christa Voss's funeral was on Saturday in Owasso. We gathered to celebrate her life and try to make sense of the tragic end to such a promising future.
Matthew Edmond's funeral is Tuesday in Arkansas. We will do the same thing there.
The survivor has been scarred physically and emotionally for the rest of his life.
We, as bicyclists, share the same roads as motorists. We share the same responsibilities as well as the same rights enjoyed by those in an automobile.
What is most troubling, however, is the anger which we deal with almost daily from some motorists. A bicyclist is defenseless as the three victims in this instance were. Should a motorist choose to act on their most base and abhorrent nature, we do not know, most often, until it is too late.
We share stories about glass bottles being thrown at us, horns blared a few feet from our tire, and obscenities shouted at us all for merely riding a bicycle. There generally is no recourse as the car is traveling too fast or we are too startled to record a license plate.
It has reached a level that some are too scared for their safety, fearful of leaving their spouse a widow or widower and children orphaned, to ride their bike on public roads. Some bicyclists have gone the other way, looking for guns to slip into their jersey pockets.
Have we reached the point as a nation where we cannot leave our house because we fear our neighbors? Are motorists really that angry at a bicycle?
On Tuesday, we lost two bright, young individuals that Oklahoma could use more of, not less.
We, the undersigned, ask that every motorist please treat us as they would their neighbor, brother, sister, mother, father, daughter, son or friend. And allow us to arrive home to our families and friends safe as you would want for your own family and friends.
We ask that each and every motorist take a few seconds out of their drive and please exercise caution and care.
We ask to use the same roads and share the same responsibilities and rights as you do.
We merely ask for what the founding fathers stated almost 233 years ago and the most basic principle of this great nation:
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The Edmonds and Voss Memorial Fund has been set up at the Bank of Oklahoma. You can donate at any BOK branch or use PayPal: http://tinyurl. com/nwqcen
Donations will be handed over to the two families to offset the costs of bills associated with this tragedy.

____________
Is it any wonder I'm afraid to ride? I've been reading way too many of those public forum comments on the news sites. I need to STOP.