|
Web posted Sunday, January
25, 2004
|
 |
Editorial: Governor won't be first to ride
bike across S.C.
Carolina Morning News
Gov.
Mark Sanford deserves praise for using his bully
pulpit to call attention to the problem of obesity
in South Carolina.
The governor is not just
talking about the problem, he's doing something
about it. During his State of the State speech
last week he invited citizens to join him on a
300-mile bike ride across South Carolina this
spring.
Word is, truckers have agreed to
transport bikes and the governor's office has been
inundated by phone calls from people wanting to
know how they can get
involved.
Unfortunately, the ride has
already overshadowed the efforts of a group of
South Carolinians who have long understood the
benefits of biking.
Cycle South Carolina,
an annual bike ride across the state, will start
on June 21 in Savannah. It is part of a ride that
extends throughout the South; the Bike Ride Across
Georgia ends in Savannah on June 19, and many
riders will continue on into the Palmetto State.
Many of those who ride through South Carolina will
continue the next week through North
Carolina.
BRAG, as veteran cyclists know,
is a much bigger event than Cycle South Carolina.
That is only because it is older and better known.
South Carolina has just as much scenery as
Georgia.
If the governor could somehow
coordinate his ride with Cycle South Carolina, it
would lend a great deal of publicity to a group of
citizens who have long promoted the same
principles as the governor.
In short, the
governor could help bring needed publicity to
Cycle South Carolina and perhaps give it the
jumpstart it needs to be as big as the
recreational rides in other states.
The
benefit for the governor's office is that staffers
wouldn't have to deal with the thousands of
details that come with organizing a long bike
ride. The Cycle South Carolina folks are already
experts in that field.
Again, we praise the
governor for fighting obesity, we just wish he
could coordinate his plan with the one already put
in motion by Cycle South Carolina
organizers.
| | |
.gif){kind=spacer}
.gif){kind=spacer}