September, 2002
Thoughts from the Road
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m most dangerous when
I’m riding. Not because I’m a menace but rather this is when I do my best
thinking. Whenever my fiancé hears that I’ve been out riding and thinking she
immediately gets very cautious. She knows my mind has been working overtime. A
lot of times it’s about her and I and I get this sly little grin on my face.
But, a lot of other times it’s about motorcycling, CMT/ABATE and Freedom.
I know that I am lucky to live in this wonderful country out of all the
places that I could have been born. In my last column I mentioned a lot of
things that have happened lately that used to be ‘unthinkable’. Most people
don’t believe that motorcyclists and motorcycling is threatened. But, tell
someone who receives their health insurance from their employer that they are
not covered (HIPAA regulations) if they get into a motorcycle accident and
they’ll look at you with a perplexed look. Let’s not get back into that for
now. Let’s just leave it at, “We’re up against it”.
I’ve just finished my annual Sturgis trip, which I look
forward to each year with great anticipation for several reasons. The first is
that I get to do it with my great friend, Wayne. We really enjoy this adventure
together. And believe me, it can sometimes be a real adventure – from
grasshoppers, to mudslides, to construction zones, to fleabag motels, to runny
eggs, to some of the most beautiful countryside you’d ever want to see – it
is always an adventure. This year we took my fiancé and his wife. The last time
we attempted this it was the rainiest trip we had ever had and I blew a lifter
in the middle of Missouri late on a Saturday. Needless to say, it was an
adventure. The point is that I had 3,800 miles to think.
Yes,
we’re up against it. Look at the media coverage. Did you all see the ABC World
News Tonight piece that blamed billions of dollars of medical expense on us and
stated that it was the bikers against the doctors? Here’s a sample of their
‘report’.
“A
study here in Florida (Journal Trauma) found that 2/3 of all bikers had no
insurance leaving the taxpayer with the bill. And for those riding without
helmets, the average medical cost rises to $55,000. The federal government
estimates taxpayers and insurance companies would save 10 billion dollars if all
bikers wore helmets. (Quoting NHTSA - 1998)”
Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? The only problem is that
it is wrong. These numbers are not supported in anyway by any independent study.
But, they went out over the network news in a story that stated that bikers
would rather have freedom than the safety a helmet provides. Once again, we all
know that they missed the story completely. They didn’t show that helmets are
only DOT approved to 13.9 mph. They didn’t bring up the fact that we aren’t
saying helmets are bad. They didn’t show that motorcyclists generally carry
better private insurance than the average motorist on the road. They didn’t
show that the death rate per 100,000 miles in mandatory helmet states is higher
than in free choice states. No, they just want everyone but themselves to give
up a little freedom for safety. As they said when they started the story,
“We're going to explore the cost of Freedom tonight - in this case, the very
high cost of being free to ride a motorbike without a helmet.”
Well, as I rode back and forth to Sturgis this year (before
this story aired) and did it while wearing a helmet for about 5% of the entire
trip – BECAUSE I HAD A CHOICE - I thought a lot about freedom. You can’t
cross the wide open plains of this country and think about the settlers and
Conestoga wagons (we came up on an old fashioned cattle drive in Oklahoma) and
the efforts it took to open up the west and the history of this great land
without thinking a lot about freedom. The funny thing is if you think about it,
we’ve already paid a huge price for this freedom. Think of the efforts we’ve
made and the people who have died to secure this freedom. Then there are idiots
like ABC News saying this ‘freedom’ is costing us billions.
To them I say, we’ve already paid for this freedom. The
freedom I want is the freedom to be an adult and not a subject of a ‘nanny
state’ of government that will protect me from myself just because someone can
assign a dollar amount to my choices. We’ve paid the price of freedom. Now we
have to pay the price of vigilance to protect our freedoms against those who
would claim to know better.
We’re up against it. Remain vigilant. Until then, just
ride…
Steve
