Virginia Freedom Riders :: Freedom Forums

faceman · Road Warrior Joined: 01 Jun 2004 Posts: 393

The following was published in the Richmond Times Dispatch. If nothing else it was a good plug for the VFR!!!

Motorcycle Noise Oppresses Neighbors

Editor, Times-Dispatch:
May is Motorcycle Awareness Month -- 31 days of politically correct pandering put on us by Gov. Tim Kaine and the Virginia Freedom Riders/Riders Against Constitutional Erosion. Biker's rights groups qualify for grants of no less than $100,000 per state. Our governor's Motorcycle Virginia Web site has an "Advocacy/Rights" section! VFR-RACE wants to "stop the persecution of motorcyclists, regain our lost rights, [so] we can enjoy our lifestyle as other Americans enjoy theirs" -- while many Americans can't open windows on nice days or enjoy conversation because of Harley-Davidson noise.

Biker businesses have played the persecution game since 1903 when, instead of facing folks whose business they disrupted with noise, they deployed PR on the public front and back-channel lobbying on the legislative branch. They're still at it. Congressional Quarterly cites "the political muscle motorcyclists enjoy, organized with military precision and employ[ing] sophisticated political tactics."

In the 1980s, the EPA Office of Noise Abatement was closed; Harley got a federal bailout; kept its noisy, old-fashioned engine; and marketed the antisocial tribal identity of the Hell's Angels to suburbanites as patriotic virtue. Brock Yates wrote: "At the very core were the Hell's Angels. Harley-Davidson masterfully mixed the bad-guy image of biker gangs with the independent, free-thinking, patriotic American cowboy loyal to the nation's core traditions." Newspapers fell in line, describing them as doctors, lawyers, policemen, and business owners.

People should be free to live without being disturbed. Must millions of Americans endure Harley thunder, cars and trucks with loud exhausts, and boom cars? When a child turns away from her studies as Mr. Harley rumbles by, a portion of her life is taken -- forever. Is this fair?

Mark Huber. Richmond.

Find it at http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/opinion/letters.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-05-03-0012.html

Faceman
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Bernie Adams, President
Virginia Freedom Riders