Malik Rahim’s Journey for Bike for Peace
Rahim is en route to the capital to confront legislators to take action in the Gulf oil spill and to bring awareness to the masses of such simple efforts as biking as a way to decrease the carbon footprint, and bring peace to the world. We caught up with him yesterday – on the 13
“My message is not one of finding a message,” he told us. “In part, I want people to think about how we can preserve life as we know it. My grandmother did not give us sodas for dinner; we had lemonade from rainwater. My children and grandchildren will never taste the sweetness of it. When she first heard about the toxins in streams during the early 1950’s, she purchased Ozone water.
“I come from Algiers, Louisiana. At one time among our people the emphasis was on acquiring land and property before purchasing a vehicle. Our mode of transportation was the cheapest: walking and biking.
“You might not have afforded to purchase a car or maintain it if you could, but you could pump a bike and patch a tire. And for gas, there was strictly your leg motion. You had you.”
During Rahim’s 25-year involvement in environmental justice movements, he ran for City Councilman and then for Congress as a Green Party candidate. Today, he is running for something else: in solidarity with political activist Cynthia McKinney, who is biking from California to Washington with other Bikers for Peace.
Rahim decided to start his course from the Gulf area when the BP disaster erupted. During rest stops in various towns, villages and cities, he conducted media interviews and meetings with environmental organizations. If all goes on schedule today (29
As part of its Greenprint for Change continuing series, Our Time Press is following Malik Rahim’s Journey with periodic updates and a full story and profile to appear in our upcoming issues covering the 5
“Everything becomes mute, if we do not care for the water we drink, the air we breathe, the food we eat and how we live,” Rahim told us. “If we lose life as we know it because of our inability or refusal to save it, I want one thing to be said: ‘He was a crazy old man with dreds and a bike who tried to save the world,” More on www.ourtimeathome.com.
th day of his journey which ends in the capital September 22nd — as he stood on the balcony of the Meg Perry Center for Environmental Peace and Justice in New Orleans enjoying the sounds of birds. th), he is meeting with Sea Grant, Mobile Bay and the Mississippi/Alabama Estuary Project. His goal: to bring awareness of the full impact of the latest disaster in the Gulf; the U.S. is losing not only its soul, but also its wetlands. “Since 1932, we’ve lost enough wetlands to fill the state of Delaware.”the Anniversary of the Katrina hurricane tragedy. Of the 1.1 billion bikers in the world, Malik Rahim, 62, co-founder of Common Ground, is the only one pedaling a “regular old seven-speeder” through the Deep South heading east on a 1500-mile trek to Washington, D.C. while carrying a 20-lb tent with a singular mission: to save the world from itself and its excesses.