Many thanks to JORBA for all their work (if u haven't joined, do so) and happy Independence Day to all.
Speaking of which...
As the fourth of July – known in more enlightened times by the more illustrative name “Independence Day” – is upon us, it behooves all Americans to reflect on our history, and on the many aspects of the American War for Independence, without which we would not exist as a nation.
Union County, New Jersey cyclists should pay special heed to the words of James Otis, a figure of the American Revolution who as early as the 1760’s was sounding the call for the need to be secure our rights from the injustices of the English monarchy, and called for everything from an end to warrantless searches by the King’s men, to freedom for black slaves.
Truly, in many ways, he was ahead of his time.
Although Otis’ most famous attribution, “no taxation without representation” may be something he never literally said, word for word, he helped put the idea in public consciousness as a concept. His actual words were, “The very act of taxing, exercised over those who are not represented, appears to me to be depriving them of one of their most essential rights; and, if continued seems to be, in effect, an entire disenfranchisement of every civil right.”
Over two hundred years later, I can only say, “wow.” Mr. Otis hit the nail on the head.
Speaking of hitting, he paid dearly for his beliefs. Starting out as a loyalist appointee of Britain, he resigned his legal job – which included prosecuting regular people turned smugglers in trying to dodge Britain’s arduous Acts – and ended up representing colonials for free.
In addition to giving up his livelihood, he ultimately gave his life; he was struck in the head by a loyalist with whom he had an argument; brain damage resulting from this injury forced his retirement from public life, silencing a voice that hundreds of bayonets in the hands of redcoats could not quell.
Nevertheless, two centuries after this brave orator spoke out in favor of freedom, and against misgovernment, his words have never been more relevant – especially to Union County cyclists. Property taxes in New Jersey are among the highest in the nation; county taxes take a size-able sum from the pockets of wage earners in this state. Yet, in the most literal sense, cyclists have no representation in Union County, NJ. There is not a single place in Union County where we can officially mountain bike, in county parks we are forced to pay for; since in 2016, the county arbitrarily expanded its twenty year old ban on mountain biking in Watchung Reservation, created in a backroom in ’95, to all county parks.
Cyclists, in a literal sense, are taxed – and do not receive the slightest consideration for the money extorted from them. We are, theoretically, represented by the freeholders – who lie to us for years, conspire against us, and squander our time and money – much as colonists in the 1700’s were theoretically “represented” by the government in England – where they were given no voice. We know how well that turned out.
The phrase “no taxation without representation” might be an abbreviated version of its actual historical counterpart; but the same basic message was never more true, whether the cry was levied against King George in the eighteenth century, or our so-called Union County government here in the twenty-first.
Happy Independence Day. May the freedoms we recall on this day somehow come between us and the depredations of our own county government, as they did between our ancestors and King George, over two centuries ago.
No taxation without representation, in other words, trail access!
- The Lonerider
