You Can't Please Everybody

I found the article about the bike path that ran through a neighborhood that was primarily made up of Hasidic Jews to be very interesting. A lot of things stuck out to me during that discussion, especially the fact that the main complaint that they had was that the woman bikers were dressed inappropriately, and the Hasidic Jewish men were being tempted by them or whatever it was. I don't agree with them taking down the bike path due to this one problem. First of all, no one is forcing these men to look, and second of all if they can't help but look when it is against their religion to do so, then that is their problem, not the problem of the female bikers or the city. I do think that out of respect for this neighborhood, the city should have thought twice about running a bike path through it, but now that it was put there, I don't think that is reason enough to take it down. The fact of the matter is that there are hundreds of different religions in the United States, and everyone has the right to practice freely whatever religion they want. With the amount of different beliefs and values that come from all these different religions, there is bound to be something that offends one group, or something that they don't agree with, and the fact of the matter is that you can't please everyone. You can be respectful and aware of how others feel about a certain situation, but at the end of the day, a bike path with woman wearing a skimpy amount of clothes is not breaking the law, being that it is the property of the city. I do not believe a certain religious group has the right to dictate whether or not a bike path can be placed on their public streets, and I think the reason it was taken down was because it was in the best interests of the man running for mayor to do so.

Brigit May, Post 13