Knowledge Corridor

I am the director of a small public library in what is now billed as New England's Knowledge Corridor. The northeast has always been associated with learning and erudition. When we think of Gregory Peck 's postwar professor roles it invariably includes the orange hues of maples in New England fall even if we must add the color to the black and white film stock with our own imagination.

I would argue that no part of region better matches the popular imagining of iconic collegiate mythos than Western Massachusetts. No place is more "college town" than my own home of Northampton, lest it be Amherst just a short ride on the bike path and a town shy of Pelham, home of the Pelham Free Library where I am director.

Pelham is where professors go to retire. Virtually everyone in town has some connection to the University or colleges. In Pelham you're significantly more likely to have a graduate degree than a bachelor's alone. If the world looked like Pelham Volvo would be the world's largest car company, except they'd be hybrids.

As a director I am the public face of the library, and in large part I am expected to interact with the public in a way that reflects the values of the people I serve. This is pretty easy as I am well suited to the task being valley born and valley bred.

Which comes to the question of motorcycles.

The success of Harley Davidson over the last few years has tarnished the motorcycling "brand" which in my opinion peaked with the Honda Super Cub. My respects to anthropologist Cathrine Leonard some of whose language I am about to lift.

I would agree with Leonard's explanation of Harley's big success story of the 1990s was based on the comodification of working class angst. Harley's success was based on the loss of traditional male roles. In my own words Harley dealerships became "masculinity boutiques". Moreover I would say that Harley embraced many of the worst elements of masculinity.

One look no further than Harley's tacit embrace of The Hell's Angels and other 1% motorcycle clubs. Through the corporatization of gang iconography including skulls, flames, the three panel Harley Owners Group "patch" and faux Americana H-D capitalized on their association with the hyper masculine Angels. Owning an Harley meant that you could have a t-shirt that read on the back, "if you can read this the bitch fell off" and it was all in good fun.

The cultural iconography of the Harley or "custom" crowd is also often racist. Take a look at the popular West Coast Choppers logo. This show was wildly popular as a Discovery Channel series. Somehow, I doubt that James has Prussian ancestry. Considering the Angels widespread use of swastika's it's pretty hard to think of the Maltese cross as anything less than a proxy swastika.

So, in a worlds where women are usurping a man's traditional role as a bread winner, where the assets of a man's greater potential physical strength are up ended by tools and gentrification, in an America where we want to build a razor wire fence hundreds of miles long Harley steps in with a neat product that communicates your resistance to the "progress" that has robbed you of your fathers supposed virility.

This chopper and gang symbolization has largely displaced whatever else existed in the popular minds eye of motorcycling.

As the weather warms and I contemplate making my "debut" as a commuter motorcyclist it is with some trepidation wonder at how I will overcome this most recent incarnation of the idea of "motorcyclist" as only "biker".

In my mind a motorcycle is a light, efficient, ecologically sounder choice. My motorcycle is sprightly, quiet, and maneuverable. It brings me closer to my community and to nature. If it is cold out, I am cold. If I drop something at a stop light, it falls on the ground. It is honest and straightforward. It is truly a machine for living.

How I will choose to interpret my Bauhaus idea to the community is a challenge for me in the days to come. Libraries are about continuing education and life long learning, not the least of all mine.