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P.O. Box 160223 Nashville, Tn 37216-0223 615 262-1119 - Office
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Momentum "I love it when a plan comes together." Remember that quote? I remember it from George Peppard of the old ‘A-Team’ TV series. That was one of his typical sayings at the end of a show when a combination of the most convoluted set of circumstances, grandiose goals, off the wall characters and ludicrous theories would eventually result in the successful completion of some task or achievement. I suspect a great deal of what was attempting to be conveyed was the old adage that those who believe they can do something – probably can – no matter if they have done it before or not. Perseverance is a wonderful thing. CMT/ABATE is a lot like that right now. Believe me, we have the ‘off the wall’ characters! We also have some goals before us that sound insurmountable and unreachable. However, we also have some very dedicated individuals stepping up to tackle what seems to be two impossible tasks – the Southern Thunder Rally and the legislation you want as a Tennessee motorcyclist. There is no way to communicate how much effort, work and heart Wayne has put into representing the interests of the motorcyclists of the state of Tennessee. Of course, he did it for one reason – he wants freedom of choice himself! But, in order to have it – everyone else has to have it so he picked up that gauntlet and has been sacrificing and working very hard to restore some basic liberty for all bikers. Right now HE NEEDS YOUR HELP! Senate Bill 861 is in committee (maybe to the floor by now). It will soon make it to the House (As House Bill 952). If you can do only one thing this entire year – PICK UP THE PHONE! Call your Senator and Representative. The number is: 800-449-8366. Don’t know who your Representative or Senator is? Easy – call us at 615-683-6608 and we’ll tell you. JUST HOW EASY DO YOU WANT THIS? PICK UP THE PHONE. The plan is coming together. We have lobbyist help on ‘The Hill’ for the first time! But it is all for naught if you don’t call. The Southern Thunder Rally is a huge effort being constructed from thin air by Ann Stout and Randy Williams. This event from May 21-23 is a huge undertaking that many bikers in Tennessee have been wanting for years. We have Nitro Dirt Drags, lots of live music, State Point Rodeo, products, food, drinks, many, many vendors and lots more. The scope of work this entails and the additional people behind the scenes that are too numerous to mention would astound you. Yet, these two along with a number of others have stepped up – and the plan is coming together. What can you do? Easy! Show up! Buy your tickets early by going to www.cmtabate.com and to the Southern Thunder Rally area. You can purchase your tickets securely online. Please buy your $25 total event ticket or your $50 event ticket which also gets you a t-shirt and sponsorship status. Please support your State Motorcycle Right Organization. If you don’t – who will? You want to have the power of an ABATE of Indiana or ABATE of Iowa? Then do what they did – support your SMRO and get others to support it. So, does this mean that doing these two things will completely change the environment for bikers in Tennessee? No. But, we have to keep the process going. We have momentum. We passed the RED LIGHT LAW, BRAKE LIGHT LAW and MAY AS MOTORCYCLE AWARENESS MONTH last year. We did that! Let’s keep it going. Momentum is a wonderful thing. Does this mean that everything will positively succeed? No. We’ll stumble and fall and try again and learn from the past and do better the next time – over and over again. There are many variations to the old saying that success is basically picking yourself up one more time than you get knocked down. We don’t build on success when you think about it. We build on our failures. We fail, learn and try again. Are we going to fail in these efforts? Hell no! If I didn’t believe that we could succeed and continue to build a bigger and better organization to protect and fight for the rights of all Tennessee Bikers I wouldn’t be doing this and neither would Wayne or Ann or Randy or all the others. But, it works a lot better if we are all focused and positive and working for the same thing. On a personal note, I’d like to thank you all for your support during the recent Corporate Director election. Having more than one candidate allowed for good discussion and debate on the direction and future of this organization. I appreciate your support of my efforts to date. So, pick up the phone in support of SB 861 and purchase your STR Tickets early! In the meantime, don’t forget your Wiring Harness Preventive Maintenance. Steve |
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