Nebraska Paddling

It happens in every state, practially every year. Right now it's Nebraska.

With a repeal bill before the state legislature, bikers are paddling as fast as they can to get the repeal bill upstream.

But it doesn't have to be so frantic. With all the papers reporting on this story, I've been plugging the RIDE2REPEAL.COM approach with the following reader comment:

The sooner bikers figure out that doing campaign work is -- by far -- the most convincing argument, the sooner they will get their rights back.

As long as it's a debate in the court of public opinion, where most people don't know how to ride, don't know squat about motorcycles, and don't have to deal with helmets day in and day out, the bikers will lose.

But passive opinion can never beat organized action. As long as that action is in the form of campaign work, bikers cannot be stopped. But without it, they cannot win.

I hope the repeal bill passes. And I'm doing what's asked when the Call to Action comes out -- to respond to reader polls, write an email or two to legislators, etc. There's no excuse for doing otherwise.

Fortunately for Nebraska bikers, ABATE of Nebraska has done their homework. For years they've worked to develop a good working relationship with their legislators. Not just during the sessions, either. They have been helping biker-friendly legislators get elected -- and reelected -- for years. Other states can learn from their successes, both on the campaign trail and during the session.

It will be nice when bikers in every state can sit back and relax during the legislative sessions. But until the idea of working ahead -- with campaign work -- becomes part of our culture, we can only keep paddling madly against the current.

- RIDE2REPEAL@gmail.com

Volunteers for Groundhog Day

Today is Groundhog Day, a day that inspired the movie in which Bill Murray keeps re-living the same day, over and over ... until he gets it right.

With that in mind, I'm asking for your help ... so we as activists can set ourselves on the right path, and make some real and lasting progress this year.

For 18 out of 20 states that have helmet laws, 2010 is an election year. So I'm looking for 18 volunteers, one from each of these states, to lend a hand during the upcoming campaign season.

What's involved? Three important tasks:

1. Finding out which state senate and house (or assembly) seats will be up for election
2. Finding out who (if anyone) is running for these open seats
3. Finding out where the candidates stand on the helmet law

While this sounds like a lot of work (and it is) it's actually pretty manageable -- if it's done in bite-size chunks. It's also a project that can be done over the course of several months. We're just trying to get a good head start.

Fortunately, bikers from three (3) of these states have already stepped up, completing the first task of identifying the open seats. If you check out the ELECTIONS page at RIDE2REPEAL.COM, you'll see a complete list of open seats for Massachusetts, Oregon, and West Virginia. That didn't happen by itself. These three activists took the time to look it all up and send it in, and we all owe them our thanks for taking the initiative.

But speaking of bite-size, there is no way we can stay on top of every single race in each of the 18 states. Manpower wise, I only have the capacity to support another two or three states this year. But beyond that, the work load will start to become unmanageable ... and I don't intend to start getting sloppy when it comes to supporting my fellow activists.

So while I'm extending this invitation to all bikers, by necessity some of those 18 states will have to wait until 2012 for any meaningful support from RIDE2REPEAL.COM.

Personally, I'll be happy to give my full effort to the three states that we already do have on board. But just the same, I welcome any and all comers who are ready to bump up the number of biker-friendly legislators in their state capitals.

Please reply if you're ready for us to help you change your election results this year.

- RIDE2REPEAL@gmail.com

PS: Thanks to Jimi for the catching the numbers mistake. My bad.

West Virginia Mountaineer

It looks like West Virginia will make a lot of progress this year, thanks to a hard working biker activist named Celeste. If you are involved with bikers rights in WV, or you subscribe to the West Virginia Biker Bulletin email list, you know she's as active as anyone can possibly be.

We are lucky to have her on board. She's given us a list of all the legislative races coming up in 2010, and we have them all listed now on the ELECTIONS page at RIDE2REPEAL.COM. As more information becomes available we'll update the page accordingly.

For now, the West Virginia Races comprise the districts, names of candidates, links to their campaign websites, and a Google map application that gives you driving directions to that district.

When more info comes in, we can color-code the candidates' names based on their stance on repeal. For incumbents, it's ideally their voting record. Otherwise we have to ask them ... and usually they say so.

The final step in making it work comes down to you. All this ground work is for one purpose: to get campaign volunteers into the closest races, working for biker-friendly candidates. That gives us political power ... far more than talking to legislators could ever do.

According to the West Virginia map, we don't have many campaign volunteers available. So if you are interested in getting your rights back with the least amount of effort, the greatest impact, and the quickest lasting results, come join us.

Click on the SUBSCRIBE tab at the top of RIDE2REPEAL.COM. All we need is your ZIP code and your email address. That will put you on the map as a blue motorcycle (Subscriber). And if you've worked as a campaign volunteer, we'll change it to a red bike once you let us know.

If you want to take action and restore your rights the ball is now in your court.

Massachusetts Mojo

We've got a comprehensive list of Massachusetts races on the ELECTIONS page at RIDE2REPEAL.COM. That didn't happen by itself. And I sure didn't do it myself -- I'm just the messenger.

The Massachusetts Motorcycle Association (MMA) has a very sharp and hard working guy on their side by the name of Rick. He knows how important campaign work is ... to bikers rights as well as that crazy little thing called "freedom."

The whole list of races is courtesy of Rick's hard work. And it's not a done deal, since he sends us updates once or even twice a day. That's about as good as it gets when it comes to "actionable information."

But all of that hard work is just the ground work. If it's to be of any value, its got to get backed up by action. And that action is good ole' fashioned campaign work.

Unlike cold-call lobbying, campaign work is more than talk. It is action. And that action produces things that no amount of talking can. It generates votes for biker-friendly candidates, and it earns something priceless: their loyalty. And that loyalty sure comes in handy ... when the legislature is in session.

Of course it's all a waste of time if nobody help Rick take it to the next level.

But stop and think for a second -- about how easy campaign work is, and yet how lasting its results. Bar none, there is no better, easier, faster, and more effective way to get your rights back. That's because it creates something bikers can't get from any other activity:

POLITICAL POWER

So in the interest of conserving energy, not to mention restoring your rights, don't let this opportunity go to waste. If you live anywhere near one of these races, you owe it to yourself, and to your brothers and sisters. So pop your address or zip code into one of those boxes, just to see how close you live to a free country.

Hot Water on Lobby Day

For me, Motorcycle Lobby Day at the state capital has always been a lot like taking a bath, especially in terms of temperature. Let me explain why.

After a long ride in the freezin' season, there would be nothing better than enjoying an endless supply of hot water. Just the stuff to take the chill out of those weary bones.

But there's just one little problem. The water can be as cold as penguin pee around this time of year.

So at first I tried taking out my trusty Zippo, attempting to heat up the water as I stepped into it. Not very effective, with all that water flowing around, and me with just one lighter.

Since everyone knows there's strength in numbers, the next time I came prepared. I knew some friends were also taking the annual plunge, and we had a few dozen lighters between us. But no matter how hard we tried, and no matter how many Bic's got flicked, the water was still just too darned cold.

There must be more to it than just numbers.

Then somebody told me a little secret. "Fire up the water heater BEFORE you take a bath. If you keep trying to heat the water just as you're stepping into it, you'll never warm anything up."

I took that advice.

Using the same original Zippo I'd had all along, I went straight to the water heater and lit the pilot light. It took just as much effort as it always had before. But this time, I did it ahead of time ... in the right place, and at the right time. And what do you know? An endless supply of hot water!

Of course the moral of the story is that bikers must plan ahead ... and work ahead ... if we are ever to expect a warm reception at the state capital. On Lobby Day, legislation streams by faster than a full-on firehose. And as often as not, we are left out in the cold when we talk to unfamiliar legislators about motorcycle issues.

But this time we planned ahead, and we worked ahead. Bikers lit the fires a little earlier, during the campaign season -- just a few short months before Lobby Day and the start of the legislative session.

It was as easy as 1-2-3.

First we looked at all the races to see which ones were the closest. Next, we found out which of the candidates (if any) were biker-friendly, regardless of political party. And finally, we helped our candidates by working for them as campaign volunteers, each one delivering votes by the dozen.

No, we didn't win them all. But we did learn a few lessons along the way, so we can only get better at it the next time around. And when the day was done, we helped a quite few new friends win quite a few important races.

All it took was a little effort -- mostly delivering campaign yard signs -- but also knocking on doors, making phone calls, etc. Every little bit helped.

Most importantly, we got lasting results. Now there are brand-new state legislators who are biker-friendly, right from the get-go. And a few of our former legislative opponents are now long gone, never again able to stand in our way.

Yes, Lobby Day was very different this year. It wasn't spent frantically trying to warm up legislators who didn't know us. Instead we saw the smiling, friendly faces of quite a few new allies in the state legislature.

A couple of times, legislators took me straight into their offices for a sit down chat -- right past other lobbyists who'd already scheduled appointments -- and were left waiting in line. After all, friends come first.

The best part is that it can only get better. Each time we roll up our sleeves and help a biker-friendly candidate win, we gain another ally in the legislature. And those victories will keep on adding up, eventually resulting in the legislative majority we need -- to pass the legislation we want.

We fought hard for those legislators on the campaign trail, and now they fight just as hard for us at the state capital.

So now when it comes to political power, bikers have a new reputation. But we got it the old fashioned way.

We earned it.

So jump on in -- the water's fine. And there's always room for one more. All you gotta do is take the plunge. Visit RIDE2REPEAL.COM to get your feet wet.

-RIDE2REPEAL@gmail.com

< MA S-NBM > Norfolk

It's all over the news. Scott Brown beat Martha Coakley in the race for Ted Kennedy's old senate seat. But like Senator-Elect Brown said, it's really "the people's seat." And the people have spoken.

Like a lot of big elections, there is another one left in its wake. This time it's the state senate seat that Brown will leave behind. The district is the Norfolk, Bristol, and Middlesex, which lies just south of Boston.

There will be a primary before the general election, so we'll keep an eye on the candidates as they pop up. Updates on this race will be posted to the  ELECTIONS  page, listed under Massachusetts Races.

As is the case with all special elections, this Boston race presents New England bikers with a special opportunity. All we need to kick start the effort is to find out where the candidates stand on the universal helmet law. It's a simple question that normally gets a simple answer. Yes, no, or dunno.

Sure, there's a lot more to bikers rights than just the helmet law. But that single issue shows proof-positive whether they're biker-friendly or a nanny-crat. And among bikers, it's a passionate issue. Passion becomes motivation, and motivation becomes action. So then it's simply a matter of bikers taking action to help a biker-friendly candidate win.

And that takes campaign volunteers -- in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.

When bikers work as campaign volunteers, they help to win elections. There is nothing more powerful in the political world than that. So when bikers make a difference in winning elections, they get respect from legislators the old fashioned way: They earn it.

Simply put, but not so simple to accomplish.

There is only one weak spot in the whole chain of events. The RIDE2REPEAL.COM way is very different than how it's always been done in the biker's rights community. And change doesn't come easy, to bikers or to anyone else.

So when the call comes out for campaign volunteers, the odds are pretty good that bikers will stay put, waiting for someone else to go first.

That's where you come in. And yes, I mean YOU.

It only takes one biker to get the ball rolling. Without that one biker stepping up, nothing else happens, and we're stuck in the same place we've always been ... sucking the hind tit of the political milk machine.

But if one Bean Town biker steps up first, other nearby bikers can act when the time is right. And then we get our rights back. It's quick, efficient, and effective. In other words, it gets the most results with the least amount of effort.

To learn more, click on the green  How it works  tab at the top of RIDE2REPEAL.COM. Or just shoot me an email any old time.

- RIDE2REPEAL@gmail.com

VCOM Lobby Day Training

I'm sitting in a room full of bikers rights advocates. The occasion is the Virginia Coalition of Motorcyclists (VCOM) training session. This event supports Motorcycle Lobby Day at the state capitol tomorrow, so we are currently reviewing bills that will be considered by the legislature.

Kelly Werrell of Thunder Roads Magazine is covering the event. And with good reason. There are lots of good people here, representing a cross-section of the motorcycling community. In addition to Tom McGrath and his VCOM crew, we have ABATE of Virginia, US Military Vets Motorcycle Club, Gold Wing Road Riders, and many more.

I'm also happy to see several members of ABATE of South Carolina, who made the ride up here on a cold rainy January day. They've got a court case about the Myrtle Beach helmet law, which Tom McGrath of VCOM is taking all the way to the South Carolina Supreme Court.

We also listened to a presentation by Bruce Biondo. He's the program manager of the Virginia Rider Training Program, and he works hard at reducing motorcycle accidents, injuries, and fatalities.