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As you may recall, Jesse was fined nearly $300,000 last year by California air quality
regulators. NY Myke of San Diego H-D had approached Jesse before the fine came down asking for his high
profile assistance with fighting that very issue - by joining an MRO and speaking out publicly about what
would eventually cost him a ton of cash. Sure, he can afford it, but $271,250 would buy a lot of beer and
sheet metal. He basically told NY Myke to beat it.
I don't know if Jesse regrets his decision, but my question remains the same. Why don't
more motorcyclists join ABATE or the MMA? Do they not care that state legislators nationwide would like to
take away our right to ride free and work on our own bikes and wear what we choose when we get in the wind?
If many of them had their way, we would all be wearing full face helmets, wearing orange vests with those
reflective strips on them (over full body armor), and having an airbag installed on every bike in the country.
That's assuming that they just wouldn't go that extra step and ban motorcycles altogether.
How many of our freedoms have to be yanked out from under us before people open their
eyes and recognize it for what it really is? I mean, hell – I could care less if these welfare riders showed
up at a meeting, but why can't they just hand us their $20 and help us protect their rights, even if they don't
give a shit? Bandanas off to the MMA's Gelman for the cover of The Patriot several months ago. The cover photo
was a shot of a biker's chest and vest holding a cardboard sign reading, "Will fight for your rights for $20".
Wow, that was a really powerful image and I bring it up at every MRF conference because it
was so right on target. A lot of folks have been blown away by it, without even seeing the picture, just by
hearing my description of it. I think that that image would be a great way to promote MRO membership and put
that thing on some banners and get them hung up in all the biker bars across the state… maybe staple membership
forms to the bottom edge...
Being generous, between both ABATE & the MMA, we have approximately 3000 members statewide,
and we have how many motorcycles registered in Arizona? 150,000+!? That's just pathetic. No other words fit and
that's probably too mild. Don't those other 147,000 motorcyclists care about what our government is trying to
do to our lifestyle? Don't they care that our rights to ride free are evaporating at such an alarming rate?
These welfare riders need to be shaken into reality, and if we won't do it, then it ain't gonna happen my friends.
OK, enough on that thing. Back to the BEAST of the East. This conference was quite a different
one for me, this time around. This time, I was a presenter at one of the Breakout Sessions. The topic; "Managing
the Monsters: The Media and the Motorcyclists".
When I was first volunteered to make this presentation, I was more than a little concerned
due to my lack of luck dealing with the media in Arizona. I mentioned this fact to Still Ray in a conversation
and all he had to say was "Well, at least you know what doesn't work."
Though he really didn't give me a direction to take, he did reassure me that this is not a
problem that only I have to deal with. As we all know, too often the media ignores the biker community unless it
involves bullets or blood. They shrug us off when we do something that truly benefits the community. They throw
our press releases in the can, never to be seen again.
As the time of the presentation approached and the butterflies found their spot in my gut.
The room started filling up with motorcyclists from all over the East Coast. I had the benefit of Cindy Hodges
of the MRF sitting in on my presentation taking notes on my audience and their reactions. This will prove to be
invaluable when I make this presentation again at BEST of the West this June in Vancouver, Washington.
The presentation covered such things as the different types of media available to us, which
ones to approach and with what messages, suggestions for trying to get television crews to attend an event and
the creation of the perfect press release. If any of you out there are not able to attend the MRF conferences,
but would like the transcript of it, shoot me an email and I'll get it out to you.
Now, anyone that knows me, knows that I'm not the least bit shy or uncomfortable talking.
However, after an hour of standing in front of a crowd, making my spiel, I could feel the sweat beginning to run
down my back.
I managed to make it through the whole thing and even sighed a sigh of relief when I was finished
and started getting some questions from the audience about what I had just covered. Having a conversation is always
more comfortable than just standing there talking for nearly an hour and a half hoping that I'm not sounding like
the adults in a Peanuts cartoon (wah wah wah waaaaah).
I think that what made me most comfortable about this whole experience was that there wasn't a
'welfare rider' in the room and that every one of these bikers really wanted to hear what I was talking about so
that they could take it home and put it to good use.
Next time you hear someone ask "Why didn't ABATE do something about this?" Ask them why ABATE
didn't have their support.
Until next time… all of my bitching
is for a good reason…
FREEDOM!
Eric Hampton
Editor, The Masterlink
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