|
Let me explain how that happened in the first place… I submit all of my articles for review
before it goes to print, just like everyone else. Tim read it and answered in a private email. I then asked if I
could run it as a rebuttal. He was good with that and it ran. I hope that clears up any confusion that there may
have been about how a rebuttal appeared in the very same issue of the paper as the “offending” article.
What also surprised me? My most personal critic (also another State Officer) criticized me for
the overall content of the Chromeside - because I slammed our federal congressmen for not reading legislation that
they passed, and affects every one of us… my reply? How could that possibly bode well for bikers, let alone the
American people?
I received no reply to that question. I’m seeing a pattern here… I ask the hard questions and
get no answers.
I guess I’m the “angry mob” Nancy Pelosi warned you about and that makes me proud. When war
protestors shout down politicians, they are referred to as “concerned Americans”. When concerned Americans stand
up for themselves and voice their opinion on bailouts or health care reform, they are labeled un-American (among
other rude comments) and, of course the now famous “angry mob”.
Nancy Pelosi is saying anyone that doesn’t agree with her is part of “Astroturf” – demeaning
the actual grassroots movement that is really occurring throughout the country. This woman’s arrogance is simply
unbelievable. She is forgetting about the protestors in her own district in San Francisco being “angry mobs”
protesting the last administration. Clearly, she is using her convenient memory loss and dismissing the sins of
the past as not happening.
If our right to free speech is removed, our job as freedom fighters comes to a screeching halt.
That, my friend, is the plain truth and could develop into a plain shame.
If we as motorcyclists are shouted down when we try to explain our views or dismissed as a
radical fringe Astroturf movement – then we got problems. This whole bucket o’ crap HAS to be viewed as a
motorcyclists’ concern.
Again, I have to stress that this is not a donkey vs. elephant thing. This is a government
thing. Our Community Organizer in Chief is a politician – not your best beer-drinking buddy next door. I believe
that he is out for his own best interests – just like ANY other politician. If you can prove me wrong, please do
so. I need to be convinced, though. Hope and Change do not give me a warm, fuzzy feeling when 10 percent of this
country is unemployed and the government is taking control of more and more aspects of American business and
intruding further and further into the American peoples’ lives.
The day that they try to take my motorcycle is the day that they will rue their decision.
My bike is an expression of who I am and what I believe in. If they try to tell me that my beliefs mean nothing
because I have been hired by the motorcycle lobby to oppose them, they’ve got another thing coming.
If you’ve never been the “political sort” before, you better reexamine your way of thinking.
If you’ve never written your congressmen before, you better consider doing so. If you’ve never gotten really
pissed at our government – Red or Blue – I gotta feel sorry for you.
And if $100,000 of your money being stolen by our state legislators doesn’t piss you off,
check to see if you still have a pulse.
Until next time… all of my bitching is for a good reason…
FREEDOM!
Eric Hampton
Editor, The Masterlink
|
