The Bike With the Chrome Dipped Frame

This is a story about friendship, community and sense of place.

This story begins in 1948

Milwaukee County built a Velodrome in Brown Deer Park for the 1948 Olympic Trials. Bike racing was part of the Milwaukee areas sense of place. Speed Skating was important to the European immigrants that settled in the area and worked in Milwaukee's machine shops. Many of the skaters from that area populated the Olympic Speed Skating Team. The muscle set used in skating was similar to the set used in bike racing. The races were the skater's way of staying shape in the warmer months after the skating rink in West Allis closed down for the season.

From hollandercycle.com

About a decade later I went to Brown Deer Park to watch races at the velodrome. The State Championships and the Nationals were held at the park that year. Watching these athletes fly around the track was exhilerating.  I was hooked. When the Milwaukee Wheelmen announced there would be stock bike races at their sanctioned races, I signed up. I dreamt that someday I would be racing against those great athletes competing at the velodrome.

One Thing

There was something standing in the way of my dream. I didn't have the kind of bike my competition used. I had a heavy old Schwinn with a coaster brake and streamers coming out of the handlebars. I may have even had mudflaps and a rearview mirror. They all had ten speeds! I tried saving up, but my meager allowance and the few dollars earned mowing lawns meant I would have enough money in about two years.

What I had was Pete. Pete ran the local bike shop. I had been hanging around the shop for a couple of years. Over time we developed a friendship. Our family had close relationships with many of those who provided services for us in the 50's and early 60's. Our TV repairman, the auto mechanic, the lady who ran the bakery at the grocery store, the man who remodelled our bathroom and kitchen, even the people at the haberdashery were all friends. We were loyal to them as they were loyal to us. Those relationships are a lot different than the retail and service experiences today.

 I told Pete what I wanted to do, and he was was willing to help. He had a pile of scrapped bikes in the back, and he allowed me to scavenge parts to try to build a bike. These were castaways. Many of the frames and rims were bent. The hubs were rusted and the brakes worn. The problem was most of the frames and rims were a lot heavier than those on the competition's bikes. I did manage to put together a bike, but the weight was only slightly less than the Schwinn. These bikes weren't anywhere near as fast as the ten speeds being manufactured by Schwinn. I raced with this homemade bike the first summer. I managed to place in a few of the races, but I could never compete on a consistent basis against the the much lighter and faster ten speeds.

A Great Offer

One day while looking for a lighter frame, Pete approached me and offered to help me build a bike from scratch as long as I acknowledged I got the bike from the Brown Deer Bike Shop. It was a marketing opportunity for Pete and a chance to compete for me. I did not hesitate. Through the generosity of my much older friend, I became competitive.

The stakes were higher that summer. The Wheelman had put up a donated track bike as the grand prize. It had a chrome plated frame, and I thought it could be my ticket to competitive sanctioned racing against the best in the state and the country. I won the first race! I was in the points lead. I could almost see myself riding on the chrome plated track bike.

Overcoming Obstacles

At this point some bigger and more athletic boys joined the competition with top of the line Schwinn ten speeds. I rode hard, but I started dropping in the standings. The dream of the bike with the chrome dipped frame seemed to be slipping away. To top it off, the guy with the points lead told me it didn't matter if he won the prize. I felt a pang of injustice. That wasn't the worst of it. There was another racer who was into trash talk, and with each defeat he made sure I heard about it. He boasted he would take over, vault past me in the points race and ultimately win the coveted track bike with the chrome dipped frame. For a while I let him get inside my head.

During the last two race dates, things happened that changed my outlook and built my self-esteem. In the fifth race most of the competitors in the stock bike races were on vacation. As a result, the points leader and I went head to head in a match race. The organizers first said there would be one race. It was a chance for me to pick up five points and be back in contention.  I put everything I had into the race and passed him on the home stretch. I was really tired but quietly happy. Then the organizers said there would be a second race. I had nothing left. He won easily. There was no way I could make up the difference in points in the final race. Still, I had eight more points. I was back in second in the standings.

Not His Script

Something else happened. The trash talker pointed out during practice next couple of weeks that if he won the next race and I failed to place, he would win second place. He boasted there was no way I was even going to place. He was laughing as he tried to get inside my head. I didn't rise to the bait. All I said was, "We'll see." He laughed again. The way it worked out, if I finished third I would have enough points for second place. I wouldn't win the chrome plated track bike, but I would win a gift certificate to Ware's Cycle Shop, one of the sponsors of the race.

During that final race, I came from back in the pack and finished third just a wheel behind the trash talker. When it became awards time...when they called my name for second...my tormentor stood in disbelief. I hadn't told him where I finished. When I accepted the certificate, I smiled for the camera, and I smiled at him. He still couldn't believe it.

I discovered during the match races that I had so much more in reserve. I found out I could compete and win even if I was not the most gifted, or the fastest athlete.

Out of that group I was the only racer that moved to the next level the next year. By doing so, I joined another supportive community willing to help as I continued to race for another five years.

Continuing the Tradition

My oldest son, Matt, is now racing.  He discovered last year that the bike he bought at a department store was way to heavy for competition. He asked me about where he could buy something lighter. We looked at new bikes. They were way out of his price range. He was disappointed, but I told him not to worry. I took him to a local bike shop in Bloomfield. It's a mom and pop operation. We talked with them about what Matt wanted to do and what he hoped to accomplish. It turns out they have a back room filled with used bikes. We found just what he needed. We've been back to the Bloomfield Bike Shop a couple of time for parts and service. They know Matt and they are willing to help fill his needs. He's experiencing that sense of community and loyalty I did back in the 60's.

Matt races in the State Games next week.

Mainline Protestants in Decline

Mainline Protestants make up shrinking number of U.S. adults

Pew Research has just released research on the decline of Mainline Churches. According to the research the decline is steep. There are 5 million fewer adults going to mainline churches since 2007.

Why?

Mainline churches are getting older. Is it age appeal? the median age for mainline churches is 52, and according to the research Millennials are the leading factor in the group called "nones" (no affiliation). Immigrants are also adding numbers to the ranks of unaffiliated. According to Pew Research, "Our 2014 Religious Landscape Study, a follow-up to the center’s first Religious Landscape Study in 2007, found that one-in-five immigrants said they did not belong to any religion – an increase of 4 percentage points since 2007, when 16% said they did not associate with any faith tradition." 
                                            

Root Causes

These factors don't really get at the 'why.' Once the why is known answers can be found as to how to get people back in the pews in mainline churches. 

Steve McSwain is Speaker, Author, Counselor to Congregations, Ambassador to the Council on the Parliament for the World's Religions, and Spiritual Teacher. He wrote a three part article for the Huffington Post in 2013 on why nobody wants to go to church anymore. In Part One McSwain came up with seven reasons. Some are external forces and some are internal forces. Internal forces include the Leadership Crisis, exclusion based on race, culture or sexual orientation, and hypocrisy. External forces include competition, religious pluralism, changing demographics and technology. Some of the external forces can be used to the advantage of the Mainline Churches like adapting new technologies to reach younger demographics, and embracing diversity. Internal problems can be corrected by making sure our doors are really open to all.

In Part Two McSwain says change is happening...no matter what...the Mainline Church must embrace change and diversity within our churches. He says we need to stop applying labels to people. "Stop Labeling "Nones" and the "Religiously Unaffiliated" as Unfaithful, or Sub-par Christians or, worse, Not Christians at All."  Finally, We should make friends with people who we disagree with.

In Part Three McSwain lists the final six ways the mainline can get people back in the pews. They include not using the bible and worship to promote prejudice and political agenda. End the war on science, biology and psychology. Be who you are. McSwain believes a contemporary service in a traditional setting will not work.  It is time to revise Christian theology,  The gatekeepers of theological and doctrinal thought must lead the way, believing the current crisis is a call to reexamine the Christian story.

Finally McSwain says, "Know that the Church's decline could never mean the death of Christ." If you believe the last point...it will never be too late.

Focus on The Core

Something we did in public radio was to understand the values of the audience that valued our content above all others. We focused our resources on our core audience. We grew. Today public radio has 30 million listeners. We were true to our intended audience. Because we  understood those values and stopped trying to be all things to all people we grew. McSwain got it right when he encouraged the Mainliners...liberal Christians...to be true to themselves. 

The Parable of Baltimore

Jim Wallis recently wrote the Parable of Baltimore. The problems there are long-standing. They go back to the 50's when manufacturing started to leave the city. The good paying jobs that supported so many working class people are gone. The solution is inclusion, not exclusion. Working together...being fair...is good for the economy.

Baltimore's Flash Point

The story behind the violence in Baltimore was so much more than the riots. Pictures of the burning CVS and cars were all over the news. Community leaders were calling for cooler heads. Cable news anchors were wringing their hands over the violence. Wolf Blitzer was wondering why the protesters couldn't be more like Martin Luther King, Jr...failing to discern the difference between the protesters and the rioters. How could this happen?

The reasons are the same as those that caused the riots of the mid to late 60's. Too many people living in our cities are being marginalized, pushed to the edges. Their voices are not being heard resulting in increasing frustrations. Poverty rates in Baltimore are far above average for the United States. Joblessness in the neighborhoods affected by the riot is around 19%.

Long Standing Problem

The Kerner Commission report of 1968 looked at the riots of 1967 and concluded this country was headed toward two Americas....One Black and One White...separate and unequal. From the report were three most intense, deeply held grievances that an investigation found were causes of disorders in the black neighborhoods of several American cities.

• Number one - police practices. 
• Number two - unemployment and underemployment. 
• Number three - inadequate housing.  

Reaching a Consensus

The question is how much have things changed in almost 50 years? Not a lot. The perceptions of the residents and the concerns among the citizens in our poorest cities remains the same as they were in 1967. E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and Brookings Institution and David Brooks of The New York Times talked about the protests in Baltimore on NPR's All Things Considered. They agreed that the programs put in place after Kerner Commission report may not have gone far enough. To an extent they disagreed on how to approach the problem, but they agreed that there must be a renewed effort to solve the problems created by long-term poverty. It was a consensus between a conservative and a liberal. 

Jim Wallis Offers a Baltimore Parable

The Parable reads in part:

"The undeniable fact that these neighborhoods that are "left out" of jobs, education, and family in our society are overwhelmingly black and brown neighborhoods is a testament to America's lingering "original sin" of racism...

 So if we just focus on the "riots," or even just on policing behavior, we will not be addressing the root causes of these problems.  This is the parable of Baltimore, one that we need to learn from if our responses are ever to be as deep as the problems are. And admitting that the things we accept and don't accept do indeed have to do with race is a first honest step."

If we're about making a change...it starts with the person you see when you look in the mirror. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?' MLK,Jr.  As an individual we can make small difference. As a community...the change can be exponential. This does not mean that the government is off the hook. Quite the opposite when you consider we are the government. Dr. King was willing to hold the government's feet to the fire.  He expressed quite clearly that government can help end discrimination and poverty.

"We will place the problems of the poor at the seat of government of the wealthiest nation in the history of mankind. If that power refuses to acknowledge its debt to the poor, it would have failed to live up to its promise to insure "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to its citizens." (From A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.)

Building Community

Late last week I was asked to read scripture at South United Methodist Church. The request came about the time I was formulating this blog. The service that day was about building a Christian Community. The lesson was from Romans 12: 1-8. The lesson focuses on the gifts all of us have from God. It is important to understand those gifts are not the same for all people. We are a diverse group, but through our diversity we are stronger.  The point is if we work together bringing our individual gifts with us...the community benefits.

 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

The Cost of Discrimination

The message is that we can become stronger as a community...working together toward the common good. The community means all of us. That includes those living in poverty, and those being discriminated against because of our biases. We are underutilizing our resources by excluding through discrimination. In 2013 the Kellogg Foundation published a report that stated that if health service and educational services were made more equal and the average income of minorities were raised to the level of whites, the total earnings of US workers would increase by $1 trillion dollars. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would rise by $1.9 trillion by 2030.

We can change the outcomes if we become inclusive and work together.

More on the Kellogg Foundation report can be found by linking to "The Case for Racial Equity."