May, 2002
Politically Incorrect?
As most of you know by now, our legislative efforts to restore Freedom of
Choice to adult Tennessee motorcyclists has meet with an unfortunate end. But a
lot of good came from it.
The Tennessee House Finance Sub-Committee, chaired by Representative Tommy
Head of Clarksville effectively killed our bill by delaying action on it until
after the state budget is passed. The budget is usually the last thing done in a
session and will most certainly prevent the bill from being brought up again. It
was a concerted effort by those in this state who do not feel that adults should
be able to make decisions for themselves. Additionally, the fiscal impact of the
bill (which details the fiscal impact of the bill on the state of Tennessee),
which was initially determined as non-significant, was changed before it was
presented to the Finance Subcommittee to indicate false information and show an
unsubstantiated burden on the taxpayers. It was changed to essentially indicate
that if the bill passed the state would be bankrupt from additional health care
costs associated with downed motorcyclists who weren’t wearing helmets. This
simply isn’t true as has been proven by example in all the other states that
have freedom of choice. But, that doesn’t matter to whoever changed the note.
No one knows or is explaining how it got changed.
Both the House Transportation Subcommittee and House Transportation Committee
approved the bill. This was a tremendous victory and a first for us. But, this
is where people started ‘playing politics’ with us and things became ‘Politically
Incorrect’. There was an amendment raising the fine for those under the age of
21 not wearing a helmet. Although accepted as a compromise by us and our
sponsors as a show of good faith, it quickly became apparent that this was a
ploy by those not wanting Tennessee motorcyclists to have freedom of choice, as
30 other states have, so that the bill would not go to the full house for a vote
but rather have to go to the Finance Subcommittee. This subcommittee is
controlled by Tommy Head, an avid opponent of motorcyclists in the state of
Tennessee who had previously told a large charitable motorcycle organization in
his district that he would not prevent the bill from being voted on. Obviously,
he lied. This is a perfect example of one person using his position to subjugate
democracy and go against the will of the people. It was Rep. Joe Armstrong
(Knoxville) of his committee who moved to ‘study’ the bill, which
effectively killed it.
Okay, what does all this mean? Well, several things. First, we learned a lot.
We never got this far before. With the efforts of good people like Rick, Wayne,
Dean, Mark, Nancy, and all the people from the charters who took time from their
schedules to show up on those Wednesdays, we showed we can be heard and we can
get the message out. We know that there are good representatives in the
legislature who want to restore your freedoms. These people should be thanked.
Representative Mae Beavers and all of our co-sponsors should be applauded for
their efforts.
We learned that there are representatives in this state who value taxes more
than then they value the people of the state of Tennessee. (This is where I get
to be politically incorrect.) This same committee chairman, Tommy Head also
killed a bill by Mae Beavers to straighten out the entire ‘drivers licenses to
illegal alien’ loophole created a year ago. It seems he would rather protect
potential terrorists than let any bill by an anti-income tax representative get
to the house floor. You see, he is the biggest pro-income tax representative in
the house and Mae is the biggest anti-income tax representative. We got caught
in the middle as a political casualty.
We learned that the news media isn’t all that obsessed with printing the
truth. They ran several distorted stories on TV and in the newspaper. Although
we were sometimes given the opportunity to respond, our message wasn’t carried
with the same strength that our opponent’s was. Several times I called or
wrote to stations or papers pointing out inaccuracies and supplying correct
information but our message was ignored.
We learned that we need to learn from experience. Rick Zahra – with all his
monumental efforts - can’t carry this fight alone. Neither can Wayne or anyone
else even though their efforts were enormous. Other states have fought and won
this battle. I’m going to the NCOM convention to learn and talk to others who
have fought this fight. There are resources, methods and tools out there for us.
We need to increase communication and take advantage of the experience and
expertise available.
We learned that we need a Public Relations individual. We need to have a
central point of contact, a common message and a person adept at working with
and talking to the media. Although we know we had truth on our side and the best
of intentions, we were often fragmented and inefficient in our efforts. There
are a lot of newspapers, radio stations and TV Stations that would have put out
the truth had we had the resources and ability. This would go a long way to
informing the public, raising membership and achieving our goals. It will be
important to create a position at the state level and elevate someone with
talent and hopefully, experience to work with the media and speak for us with a
common, strong message. Look around, that ‘someone’ may already be a member
and be in your charter.
We learned that next year there is going to be a much different legislature.
A dozen pro-income tax representatives and committee chairmen have decided not
to run next year. Many of these are people who do not support us or our efforts
at freedom. This November could be one of the largest shake up’s in the
history of the state of Tennessee. If the polls are correct and people really
will vote out representatives who go against their will, the make up of the
legislature will be very different next year. Initial indications are that this
type of change would be good for us.
Lastly, I learned that we have some wonderful people in this organization who
truly love freedom and motorcycling. I’ve mentioned a couple already but there
are many more (more than I could name) that gave up a lot of their own time and
money to fight this fight. These people should have your – and do have my –
deepest gratitude. If you called, wrote or emailed your legislator – thank you
too. It helps.
So, let’s focus on some other things right now and get ready for next year.
Membership! This doesn’t work without a voting block! I know I’ve said it
before and I’ll say it again. Carry a bunch of the tri-fold membership
brochures with you and hand them out to every motorcyclist in the state. There
are 213,000 of us. If our membership was 10% we’d control our own destiny.
Right now it isn’t even 1%.
Membership.
Let us know what you are thinking. Write to us. Call us. Talk to your charter
officers. Use the discussion boards on www.CMTABATE.com to ask questions and
raise issues.
Until next time - Just ride…
Steve
