Pictured Gymnasts are coming to town. Pictured are Brett McClure ( left ) and John Macready, Emcee. Photo by Steve Lange / USA Gymnastics. At the 2004 T.J. MAXX TOUR OF GYMNASTICS CHAMPIONS, at UIC Pavilion Saturday, Oct. 16.
On Sunday, Sept. 12, the Choice Cycle 73 ride will bring together Chicago-area cyclists for a fun day of riding and civic involvement. The event's aim is to raise awareness and money in the ongoing fight to keep abortion legal. It is organized by Personal PAC, a Chicago-based political action committee working to identify pro-choice voters and help elect such candidates at the state and local levels in Illinois. Founded in 1989, the group has endorsed and supported many politicians whose platforms and voting records showed dedication to preserving reproductive rights. In 2002 Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Attorney General Lisa Madigan were among the top state officials who earned Personal PAC's seal of approval.
Choice Cycle 73 is named after the year the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade and the full distance of the ride is, fittingly, 73 miles. There are also two shorter options ( 40 miles and 25 miles ) but all three depart from the Evanston Ecology Center and either end or make a stop at the Botanic Gardens. A registration fee of $50 is required and a minimum fundraising goal of $730 has been set.
Terry Cosgrove is Personal PAC's executive director. He answered a few questions about the upcoming event and its significance.
Marie-Jo Proulx: Approximately how many participants are you expecting for this year's ride? Would you say the event attracts about an equal number of men and women?
Terry Cosgrove: We are expecting between 35-75 riders this year. Yes, there will be an approximate equal number of men and women with the possibility of more women than men. Men have a deep interest in the abortion issue because it impacts so many women they know. It's often easy to forget that 42% of ALL American women will have at least one abortion in their lifetime, that the most often performed medical procedure in the world is abortion ( 55 million per year ) and that according to the World Health Organization, 400,000 women EACH YEAR die of illegal abortions, or that today, one-half of all the hospital beds in every major Latin and Central American city are filled with women suffering and dying from the consequences of illegal abortions. On the legal front, the Supreme Court often uses Roe v. Wade and the right to privacy it enhanced to uphold the civil rights of GLBT people. The status of legal abortion is critical to all people, which is why everyone should join the ride.
MJP: Have any local politicians indicated that they would either participate or address the crowd of cyclists and volunteers?
TC: Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley is committed to putting together a team of riders, Secretary of State Jesse White is participating, state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz has been helping out and so have state representatives Rosemary Mulligan, Elaine Nekritz and state Sen. Susan Garrett. Former state Rep. Lauren Beth Gash has been lending support on the North Shore as well. We are hoping that local representatives who represent the areas in which the ride route covers will join in as well.
MJP: One of this summer's AIDS rides was canceled. Have you reached out to those disappointed riders to invite them to support a similar cause?
TC: We have reached out to everyone who may have an interest in riding for an extremely important issue such as the protection of reproductive rights at a time when it is under unprecedented attack. I am a veteran of the various AIDS rides and know the extraordinary power of these events, which is how I came up with the idea of an abortion rights ride. I did the Midwest Minneapolis to Chicago ride, the California AIDS ride, the first Alaska Vaccine Ride as well as the Montreal to Portland and European AIDS Vaccine rides. I would encourage anyone who did those or any other event/charity rides, while ours is not multiple days, to join us for this wonderful one-day ride for choice.
MJP: With Republican Senate candidate Alan Keyes being such a fierce anti-choice proponent, is Personal PAC now planning to double its efforts to elect Barack Obama?
TC: Personal PAC is a state PAC and as such, we cannot endorse candidates for federal office ( president, U.S. Senate, U.S. House ) . However, we can talk objectively about the candidates' positions on issues and refer people who call our office and encourage in written information that people contact other organizations who do endorse federal candidates. Barack Obama has been endorsed by every national pro-choice organization because of his pro-choice record and Alan Keyes has been endorsed by every anti-abortion organization because of his stated opposition to legal abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. Actually, I am extremely pleased that Alan Keyes is in this race and sincerely welcome his frankness and honesty on the abortion issue. Unlike other anti-abortion politicians ( read: President Bush ) , Keyes is not hiding the real right-wing agenda which is to outlaw all abortions with a Constitutional Amendment and criminal penalties while making no exceptions for a woman's health, rape or incest. The more Alan Keyes talks about the real goals of the anti-abortion movement, the more pro-choice people currently on the sidelines will realize that they must get involved to prevent abortion from becoming illegal again. And we now know through the anti-gay marriage effort, that the right-wing and this President will not hesitate to use the U.S. Constitution and state Constitutions to meet their ends. In fact, I have been warning my pro-choice friends and colleagues that the anti-gay marriage amendments are a warm-up for the amendments the radical right has waiting in the wings for making abortion illegal in the U.S. and state constitutions.
See www.personalpac.org
