#!markdown
While this whole bikers perspective / hikers perspective spawns and
interesting debate, I still don't see how exactly it's relevant to the
situation where Tineke Kraal has been caught sabotaging trails. She's been
caught on camera and her husband, via email from 10+ years ago, has also
admitted to helping her. What do these recent events have to do with the past?
Is she looking for sympathy as to why she has done what she did? So she's had
a negative encounter with a biker (allegedly) or vise-versa (or both). Likely
not the first time anything like this has happened but definitely not common,
since we know most hikers & bikers get along very respectively with each
other. If 98% of her encounters with bikers are allegedly positive, and she is
friendly with many bikers that she comes across, then why is she trying to
sabotage a trail to hurt the 2%? My personal view is that, as The Province
article suggested, she's scared now, and she's trying to either get sympathy
or justify somehow why she does what she's done.
If your general attitude when you entered a trail was to be peaceful and
harmonious with everyone you encounter, then sabotaging anything wouldn't even
come to mind. If I put myself in the shoes of a hiker, someone who has never
enjoyed the mountains on a bike, and someone who was already not overly
pleased with the onset of the biking community in my peaceful hiking trail
backyard, I wouldn't really like bikers. I may not immediately have hateful
thoughts towards them but by the basic fact that I didn't really appreciate
their presence on my trails, my patience level for them would already be low.
And certainly any encounters I had that made me feel in any way unsafe or
bothered, I would certainly feel "victimized" by that. So I don't buy the fact
that she's this sing-song pleasant lady that gets treated poorly by bikers
enough that it has caused her to act this way. Is she a nice lady? Maybe in a
different environment. Would I want to get to know her and like her as Cam has
said he would? Not really. Not all people who do bad things are bad people all
around, I know that. But I'm not looking for reasons to like her, I just want
her to stop doing what she has been doing. Why confuse what she has done with
the fact that she may not be all bad?
I think that the hiker / biker debate is one that is always worthy of
discussion. But we shouldn't be trying to use it to "humanize" someone and
openly hear their "why" perspective when they have knowingly gone out of their
way to alter a trail that could have great consequences on someones health or
life. Good open discussion vs criminal act. Not realted.
Feb. 5, 2015, 9:05 a.m. - WaterLife
#!markdown While this whole bikers perspective / hikers perspective spawns and interesting debate, I still don't see how exactly it's relevant to the situation where Tineke Kraal has been caught sabotaging trails. She's been caught on camera and her husband, via email from 10+ years ago, has also admitted to helping her. What do these recent events have to do with the past? Is she looking for sympathy as to why she has done what she did? So she's had a negative encounter with a biker (allegedly) or vise-versa (or both). Likely not the first time anything like this has happened but definitely not common, since we know most hikers & bikers get along very respectively with each other. If 98% of her encounters with bikers are allegedly positive, and she is friendly with many bikers that she comes across, then why is she trying to sabotage a trail to hurt the 2%? My personal view is that, as The Province article suggested, she's scared now, and she's trying to either get sympathy or justify somehow why she does what she's done. If your general attitude when you entered a trail was to be peaceful and harmonious with everyone you encounter, then sabotaging anything wouldn't even come to mind. If I put myself in the shoes of a hiker, someone who has never enjoyed the mountains on a bike, and someone who was already not overly pleased with the onset of the biking community in my peaceful hiking trail backyard, I wouldn't really like bikers. I may not immediately have hateful thoughts towards them but by the basic fact that I didn't really appreciate their presence on my trails, my patience level for them would already be low. And certainly any encounters I had that made me feel in any way unsafe or bothered, I would certainly feel "victimized" by that. So I don't buy the fact that she's this sing-song pleasant lady that gets treated poorly by bikers enough that it has caused her to act this way. Is she a nice lady? Maybe in a different environment. Would I want to get to know her and like her as Cam has said he would? Not really. Not all people who do bad things are bad people all around, I know that. But I'm not looking for reasons to like her, I just want her to stop doing what she has been doing. Why confuse what she has done with the fact that she may not be all bad? I think that the hiker / biker debate is one that is always worthy of discussion. But we shouldn't be trying to use it to "humanize" someone and openly hear their "why" perspective when they have knowingly gone out of their way to alter a trail that could have great consequences on someones health or life. Good open discussion vs criminal act. Not realted.