Harvest Time

Last night I met with members of an SMRO at a chapter meeting. Most were old friends, and we talked about the usual business, old and new.

Motorcycle "safety" roadblocks. Newsletter advertising rates. Malfunctioning stoplight sensors. Other MRO meetings. A chapter that recently folded. Last week's bike rally. Officer reports.

They asked me to give them an update on the campaign work going on across the state. So I spoke about it for a little while. It's an election year, after all, so there's a lot of news.

But time is running out on our campaign efforts, because after November 3rd, there won't be another general election until the fall of 2011. It will be two more years before we'll get another chance like this.

The good news is that there are plenty of opportunities across the state right now. Every region has at least one important race going on. In some areas, bikers have several races to choose from.

But sadly, a couple of biker-friendly candidates are dying on the vine, mostly for lack of campaign volunteers.

It's funny how something so easy ... putting a campaign sign into the ground ... can be so hard for bikers to actually do. Pick up a sign, poke it into the ground. It's about as difficult as tying your shoe laces.

Bikers don't seem to grasp the significance of this simple act, either. Put up signs for a biker-friendly candidate in a tight race, and we win another seat in the legislature. With so many races decided by a small handful of votes, each additional volunteer gives a candidate a huge boost.

In the back of my mind I wondered what I could say to motivate members of my SMRO to join in our campaign efforts. Like any typical chapter meeting, it's long on talk and short on action. But I think I found a good message.

When I was a kid, someone told me the story of the Grasshopper and the Ants. It's the old Aesop's Fable about the importance of thinking ... and working ... ahead.

Once upon a time, a grasshopper comes upon some ants gathering food.

Grasshopper has a fiddle, and he invites the ants to come and dance for him. But the ants decline the offer. They tell him they're stocking up on food for the winter soon to come. They can't afford to waste time dancing the days away. Not now.

The grasshopper makes fun of them and goes on his merry way.

Of course you know the rest of the story. Winter comes, the grasshopper is starving, and the ants have plenty of food in their warm cozy home. So when the pathetic grasshopper begs for food, the ants make him dance until he drops dead.

Okay, I made up the part about dropping dead. But this is exactly what happens when it comes to biker's rights.

The campaign season is the time to "harvest" biker-friendly legislators. Talk to them. Work for them. Most importantly, make a difference for them ... before the election comes and goes.

This is the only time they need our help. And it's the only time bikers can help them.

But no ...

Bikers are having too much fun enjoying the perfect weather. Going on those nice long rides and attending those end-of-summer bike events. Poker runs and parties!

And the SMRO officers? They have their hands full keeping the organization running. Newsletter deadlines. Membership cards. Treasury reports. Meeting minutes. Don't worry about the legislature now ... wait until the session begins!

Then suddenly ... it's the dead of winter. And in the middle of the bleakest part of the year, when most bikers wouldn't even think about riding, the state legislature is again in session. And then the familiar call to action comes out: Call your legislators! Ring their phones off the hook! Committee hearings tomorrow!

And the same thing happens again and again, year after year. We watch, helplessly from the sidelines, as our rights get trampled upon. But it's not because legislators hate us. It's because they don't even know we exist.

The only way to change that is for bikers to become a factor in the election process. That's the only thing politicians always pay attention to. It's a matter of survival. All those faxes and phone calls during the session are just so much background noise.

Amid the chaos of the session, legislators fall back on what counts most: The people who put them in office in the first place. Not faxes or phone calls, and certainly not the clamoring of strangers.

I don't know if my message got through to the bikers at the SMRO meeting, and whether it made the journey all the way from their brains down to their butts. But it's harvest time, and the crops are in the field. I've got work to do. And come November, we'll see how long and cold the winter will be.

RIDE2REPEAL@gmail.com