Biking With Barack

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"There's no way that was Michelle Obama." I had to twist around so my boyfriend biking behind me could better hear the argument. The presidential vacation was the furthest thing from our minds when Tim Ashe and I left Cape Cod last Friday for a day trip to Martha's Vineyard. We planned to cycle from Oak Bluffs to Gay Head, on the opposite end of the island — about 25 miles.

Halfway there, on a stretch of bike path surrounded on all sides by forest, we noticed an SUV coming toward us on the narrow ribbon of pavement. Lights on, New Hampshire plates. "Total idiots," was our shared assessment. We had to navigate around the vehicle — carefully avoiding the side mirrors — to get past the rig. 

About five minutes later, we passed the first bikers we'd seen in a while: an African American family… normal looking, except for the single white guy trailing behind them. "Whee," the mother exclaimed as they contemplated the steep downhill we were climbing. 

Once past them, I said to Tim, "God, everyone around here looks like Michelle Obama." Tim quickly concluded that we had just seen the First Lady, Sasha and two bodyguards. 

I was so busy disagreeing with him that I didn't even notice the oncoming entourage. Then I heard Tim intone, "Hi, Mr. President."  

I still thought he was joking until I heard the president's response — "Hi, guys" — in that voice. 

I looked over to see the cycling commander in chief right beside me, close enough to touch. His thin face appeared even more chiseled in a presidential bike helmet. Instead of the ridiculous "gear" favored by his predecessor, he wore a geeky polo shirt and long pants. 

In a flash, the group — which included Malia and a bunch of Secret-Service guys on bikes — was gone, and the reality of this astonishingly intimate encounter with the First Family began to sink in. Shouldn't someone have stopped us, or at least searched Tim's suspicious shoulder bag, before letting us get within stabbing distance of the leader of the free world? Were there commandos in the woods?

I read somewhere the Obamas wanted their holiday to be as "normal" as possible. I guess that's how we got through the security check. But even the pared-down logistics of protecting the president looked anything but carefree, at least from our view.

I know, he asked for it, but how ironic that the man elected to guarantee our freedoms doesn't get to enjoy them. We rode off, unencumbered, toward the Atlantic.

Comments

[Eric]

I love this story! A friend of mine once ran into MC Hammer in Times Square. All she could muster was "Holy S**t!" and he smiled and said, "Hi!."

[Haik Bedrosian]

Isn't Martha's Vineyard supposed to be some sort of 'playground for the rich?'

[dale tillotson]

Great story, and that comes from a Republican.If Pres. Obama is ok with the security provided I guess we need to be as well, but it does bring up two questions.
Did Tim pass security by giving a John Kerry"do you know who I am", and did Paula pass security by flashing her Burlington bike path press reporter credentials.

[Kathy]

Coming from a publication that carries itself as too cool for school, it's pretty funny to see that one of the owners is a regular old star-Fu*%er like the rest of us. And Haik, if you knew anything about new england, you'd know that the rich guy playground is Nantucket.

[Haik Bedrosian]

What's a "star-Fu*%er?"

Yesterday I woke up in Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and drove through 4/5 of the NE states to get home to Burlington. I was born in Burlington despite my father's immigrant status, on my mother's side I am a direct decendent of Thomas Rogers who came on the Mayflower in 1620. My grandfather Benoni Griffin was a farmer in Sudbury and he served in the legislature from Rutland County.

If you're inferring my New England Bone Fides aren't all that, well- Yeah. I've never been skiing. I don't know Martha's Vineyard from Nantucket island. Most rural New Englanders- the descendents of the farmers who used to own this land- do not. I am well aquainted with the impoverished, indigenous population of Vermont who have been economically displaced by newly arrived money- all trendy, alternative, progressive wealth. Burlington is artificially perceived as some sort of LL Bean and Ben & Jerry's utopia to many of these newly arrived, well intentioned rich people. Newsflash: It isn't. But I digress.

This is an interesting piece. It was no mistake that Paula mentioned that is was a "day trip." She wanted to be clear the she and senator Ashe were not vacationing in Martha's Vineyard itself. I don't know, but I'll bet anything Cape Cod is seen as more middle class. You know. They got fishermen. Hearty stock. Hard work. Middle class.

Nobody rich likes to admit they're rich. It's embarassing. But, still- an encounter with the president should be shared, so the sheilds have to come down just slightly to tell the story- hence "day trip."

What I don't like is the commentary on the security detail. Don't say "stabbing distance." What's the matter with you? It's up to all of us to keep this man safe. Every sane, patriotic American should do what she can to protect this man. Choose your words about meeting him carefully. Jesus.

[one _vermonter]

It's just a fun story.

[grammar]

"If you're inferring my New England Bone Fides aren't all that . . ."

You meant, "if you're implying . . ." Speakers and writers don't infer things; they imply them. It's the listerner or the reader who does the inferring.

By the way, MV is now indeed the playground of the rich. But it was once a poor whaling and fishing community. Much like Vermont and the dichotomy between the natives and the flatlander transplant liberal elites who now own the place and claim to speak for what "Vermont stands for." Blech.

Have a great day.

[Haik Bedrosian]

I could have meant inferring, but thanks for the tip.

[Jimmy]

You should have stopped him, gotten him to say something, and had a picture of yourself taken nodding and looking as if he intended to have a conversation with you, even though you really just stopped him from getting where he was going. It makes for a perfect home page for a campaign site, just ask Baruth.

[Jimmy]

"Nobody rich likes to admit they're rich."

Wow, you haven't been outside Vermont much, have you?

"Choose your words about meeting him carefully."

Hey, at least she claimed that biking past a bike-loving president while riding bikes in an area that the entire free world knew he was vacationing was a surprise.

[Haik Bedrosian]

Wow, you haven't been outside Vermont much, have you?

I've been to a bunch of places outside of Vermont Jimmy. A bunch of places. Udaipur for example. Venice twice. And Ensanda. Never to Martha's Vineyard though.

[Jimmy]

I meant long enough to get a sense of whether people were proud of financial success. I thought that was kind of obvious. Even in VT, I don't think people are always ashamed of success. Hell, the author of this blog post wrote another post about how she bought an expensive house in Burlington, and how awesome it is to move from a cheap house to a nice one.

[Hane]

Martha's Vineyard has some extremely wealthy sections, but much of it is middle class, or at least the part of the middle class that can afford to have a vacation home. Most of these homes have been in the family for a couple generations, dating back to when MV wasn't nearly as pricey.

Lots of non-wealthy people go there for day trips to weekend mini-vacays. Also, Oak Bluffs, right in the center of things in MV, is a middle-class African-American vacation community of long standing, i believe the first of its kind and still one of the very few places where black and white home owners and vacationers mix freely and comfortably.

[Haik Bedrosian]

"...or at least the part of the middle class that can afford to have a vacation home."

Most middle class people can't afford a vacation, let alone a second house to enjoy it in. If you can afford a "vacation home" you're rich, not middle class.

[Jimmy]

"Most middle class people can't afford a vacation"

That simply isn't true.

[Haik Bedrosian]

Who are you "Jimmy?" The truth police? Who cares? OK. "Many" middle class people can't afford a vacation. Does that make you feel better?

My point is a family has to be pretty well off to own a second home just to vacation in. Would you like to dispute that?

[Temper Tantrum Much]

"Who are you "Jimmy?" The truth police? Who cares? OK. "Many" middle class people can't afford a vacation. Does that make you feel better?
My point is a family has to be pretty well off to own a second home just to vacation in. Would you like to dispute that?"

Wow. You state things that simply aren't true, and then you go all nuts when someone questions you. WTF. Why don't you take a breath and think for a minute or two before you type? How do you define "middle class"? It's easy to say the middle class can't take a vacation, if you personally define the "middle class" as people who can't afford to take a vacation!!! WTF is wrong with you?

[Jimmy]

"'Many' middle class people can't afford a vacation."

That isn't true either.

"If you can afford a 'vacation home' you're rich, not middle class."

Nor is this. I can think of five friends off the top of my head who own second places, and none of them is rich by anyone's definition.

[Haik Bedrosian]

I guess my definition doesn't count. I'm not anyone.

Good for you and your five friends "Jimmy." How much does the poorest of your five friends make per year?

[Jimmy]

"How much does the poorest of your five friends make per year?"

Living on a pension of around $20k/yr I would guess. Another friend inherited a place that her parents bought for something like $7000 in the '60's so although I'd guess her income is in the mid-$30's, it's irrelevant since she didn't pay anything for the place. LOTS of vacation homes are acquired that way.

If you want a vacation home, you buy one and rent it out when you're relatively young. By the time you retire, the mortgage is paid off by your renters and it was basically free. Or you use it for vacation and rent it out the rest of the time. There are plenty of places where you can do this and the property taxes won't eat you alive. It's not rocket science, there are millions of working class snowbirds in Florida every winter who can attest to that.

[Haik Bedrosian]

I'll admit I'm entirely unfamiliar with these kinds of arrangements. From my little perspective it seems pretty darn fancy to own a second place, and it seems inconceivable that someone making 20K could afford one unless they also had considerable wealth.

"Millions" of snowbirds seems like an exageration. Does Florida's population fluxuate by millions of people every winter? Really?

The inheritance thing seems the most plausable, which leads me to my earlier point about the embarassment of riches you didn't agree with. From what I've seen in life, most people with money inherited it, or started out rich and got richer. The children of the rich stay rich and the children of the poor stay poor, it seems to me.

If somebody started out poor and worked his way up, then I'd imagine he'd be happy to talk it. If somebody has always been well off because they were born into it, which is most of the people who are- then it seems to me they are more likely to down-play, rather than trumpet their "success."

[Jimmy]

There are a lot of places where a cabin in the woods, or even on a lake, carries a property tax of less than $1000. That may seem inconceivable if you've spent most of your life in Vermont, but it's true. And again, you can rent the place out to partially or completely offset those taxes if they're higher.

"The inheritance thing seems the most plausable, which leads me to my earlier point about the embarassment of riches you didn't agree with"

1. Buying a place for $7K in the 60's did not mean you were rich, especially if you did it the way I described. And it certainly doesn't mean the person you left it to is rich.

2. Buying a house and renting it out isn't plausible? On what planet?

3. They did a study in 2004 and found that there are about a million snowbirds each year, as if it matters. If you've ever been to Florida during the winter, the phenomenon is quite obvious.

4. "Trumpeting" and "admitting" are two completely different things.

Speaking of trumpeting, there's no shame in being ignorant about certain aspects of life, and there's no shame in shouting out facts that that ignorance has led you to believe - you don't know what you don't know. But this insistence on continuing to try to salvage points based on beliefs that have clearly been shown to be erroneous is a little baffling.

[Haik Bedrosian]

1) The value of the property in the 1960s does not tell us the value of the property today. Today's value is what's important, and whether or not your friend could be considered rich would partly depend on what that amount is.

2) I did not say buying a house and renting it out is not plausable. I said "it seems inconceivable that someone making 20K could afford" a second place without wealth. If the person your describing has rental income from their second home, then clearly that would be income on top of their 20K pension, now wouldn't it?

3) One million does not constitute "millions." If you want to be the facts police, be consistent.

4) My point is sound and I still believe in it despite the degree to which I might be ignorant about some things. If you want to define "vacation" as simply taking a day off, then I guess you're right- it is not true that many middle class (however you define that) cannot afford a "vacation."

It seems like you are a person who could never admit you are wrong about anything, but from my perspective, you are missing the forest for the trees. The "middle class" has been slipping away in this country for 30+ years. Maybe the people I'm thinking of are not "middle class." Maybe they are poor, but the number of poor seems to be growing by leaps and bounds, and despite your apparant refusal to even try to see the point I'm making, the fact is most people do not own vacation homes. And in my humble opion, most people who own them are probably rich.

Nothing you have said has changed my mind about anything. Now, please- have the last word if you'd like. It seems pretty clear you won't let it go until you do.

So have at it "Jimmy..."

[Jimmy]

"If the person your describing has rental income from their second home, then clearly that would be income on top of their 20K pension, now wouldn't it?"

They don't. Their property taxes are just cheap, as I believe I described that they can be in places other than Vermont. But let's say they had $5K in rental income to offset higher property taxes - does $25K make them rich? If not, what's your point?

"My point is sound and I still believe in it despite the degree to which I might be ignorant about some things."

Well at least you admit it.

Most working or middle class families can acquire a second home in the manner in which I described. They don't need lots of money, just a desire for a second home and a modicum of intelligence about personal finances. I can't tell if you still don't understand that or just choose to ignore it because you admittedly said something other than what you meant but now can't let go of it.

The fact remains that there are accepted definitions for terms like "middle class" and "rich." You made statements relative to both of those terms that are demonstrably false. That's all I was pointing out. Before you ascribe some sort of obsessive need to be right, read back through the thread. I think it's pretty clear who is trying to stay on topic.

[Defensive]

"It seems like you are a person who could never admit you are wrong about anything"

Um . . .

"The "middle class" has been slipping away in this country for 30+ years. Maybe the people I'm thinking of are not "middle class." Maybe they are poor, but the number of poor seems to be growing by leaps and bounds, and despite your apparant refusal to even try to see the point I'm making, the fact is most people do not own vacation homes. And in my humble opion, most people who own them are probably rich."

This rant, esp. the last sentence, seems to be more driven by your unshakable personal "feelings" than by any facts you have cited about the middle class or the poor. Your are certainly entitled to have -- and keep -- your feelings about things. But you don't have the right to require other people to accept them because you just feel strongly about them.

Which is interesting because in your postings on this board you are generally not shy about confronting other people on the bases for their statements if you don't agree with them.

[Haik Bedrosian]

Where's Jimmy?

[Haik Bedrosian]

Oh wait. The comment before last one was Jimmy's. Sorry. I commented too quickly figuring it unlikely there would be two people still motivated to comment on this post. And I promised Jimmy the last word too. I'm sorry. OK, you're right about everything Jimmy. Thanks for pointing out my flawed logic and false facts. You're right. I'm wrong. You're right. And now I swear to God I won't comment again on this thread, and you can seriously have the last word if you want it. I promise. I swear. Because I'm ignorant and wrong. And you're right. Cheers.