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Hello, Friends--
Well, it looks like March is going to come in like a
Lamb--Oklahoma temperatures on Saturday are going to be in the
70's!! I'm sure all of you in the Sooner State are getting your
scoots spruced up for Spring. Here's my March Tiger Tales
article, and I hope you enjoy it--but I'm also sending a
Legislative Action Alert out at Holly's request. Rep. Guy
Liebmann has decided not to add HB 3241, the Stoplight Bill
authored by Rep. Skye McNiel, to the committee agenda for
Monday. If he doesn't change his mind the bill will be dead.
PLEASE call him ASAP--his office number is: 405-557-7357, and
his home number is: 405-748-4848. And yes, it is permissible to
call him at home--State Legislators publish their numbers in the
Legislative Directory to be accessible to their constituents.
If you do call him at home, please be mindful of the time, and
that late-night, harassing calls would definitely be
counterproductive. Remember to be nice, but please stress the
importance of passing Red Light Legislation as a Safety
measure designed to reduce motorcyclist deaths and injuries.
You can call his office number and leave messages all night long
if you can't contact his office during the day. It's important
that you leave your full name and phone number so that he can
call you back (it's really to prove that you live in Oklahoma).
As always, please be courteous, and many thanks from Holly,
myself, and all of us in ABATE for the phone calls you've made
so far. Even though we're having trouble getting these Red
Light Bills heard (SB 1700 is dead, but Sen. Bass is trying to
get it attached to other legislation as a rider), please
continue to send locations of intersections where bikes don't
trigger the light to turn green throughout the state to Holly
at:
hlswinford@yahoo.com and put "ABATE" in the subject line.
ODOT is working with us to address these listed intersections
and upgrade the sensors to more readily detect motorcycles.
Thanks a bunch for your response.
Also, many thanks to those of you who took time out of your busy
schedules to attend the ABATE Legislative Breakfast Feb. 19. I
think the event was successful--as far as the Breakfasts go. We
had a good number of ABATE volunteers attend to help with setup
and teardown of the stuff. Around 100 riders showed up, and
Legislator attendance was down from last year. A diversified
cross-section of our Riding Community was represented.
Unfortunately, we usually don't get a large turnout when a
Mandatory Helmet Law threat isn't on the calendar, like this
year. Still, we addressed a lot of important issues, and it was
good that some of our Community showed up. Rex Duncan refused to
allow both the Jeffrey Smith Bill (cell phones) and SB 1700 (Red
Light Bill) to be heard, despite numerous visits from Bikers, so
it looks like both of these bills are dead. However, Sen. Bass
is seeking to include both as riders on another bill, and Rep.
McNiel's Red Light version is still alive for now. I talked to
Lt. Gov. Jari Askins, whose nephew is going through MMI in
Phoenix to wrench bikes, and she was VERY interested in Right To
Repair. Even though the temp was 65 by mid-afternoon, it was
below freezing in the early morning, and that might've spooked
some folks. We still had riders don leather and ride in from
Woodward, Tulsa, and Claremore, as well as from around OKC. We
had food left over, which usually doesn't happen, so I brought
some bananas home LOL I'll provide a full recap in April's Tiger
Tales. I know a lot of folks could care less about what we do,
but it doesn't stop us from doing it. As Socrates once said,
"Just because you're not interested in Politics doesn't mean
Politics isn't interested in You!" Have a good weekend, all!!
Yours in Freedom,
Tiger Mike Revere
State Coordinator,
ABATE of Oklahoma, Inc.
405-596-1072 (cell)
Tiger Tales - March, 2008
Hello, my Riding Friends! I'm sure all of you are ready for
Spring to arrive, after the intense Winter we've experienced.
Oklahoma's area riding groups and establishments are producing
more event advertisements in anticipation of the nicer weather,
and the Riding Season will soon be well underway. Meantime,
your Brothers and Sisters in ABATE are fully engaged in our 2008
Legislative Campaign, fighting to preserve your Rights and
enhance your Freedoms. You can obtain more definitive
information as to our progress by keeping in touch with your
ABATE Officers and Chapter Reps, attending your Chapter
meetings, or by logging onto the ABATE State Website at
www.abateofoklahoma.org We still need the active
participation of all of our membership, and by the time you read
this, we'll have hosted our Sixteenth Annual ABATE Legislative
Breakfast at the State Capitol, which I'll expand upon next
month. Remember, folks--if you don't realize that you have
Rights, then you DON'T have them!! So, PLEASE get all your
Oklahoma friends to take their place with your fellow
motorcycling Freedom Fighters and join ABATE!
Legislative Bill assignments were released the second week of
February, in time for ABATE to start networking with the
individual Committees they were assigned to. Some of the
significant bills of interest for ABATE Members include: HB
2597, which is the Jeffrey Smith Law increasing penalties for
drivers who hurt and kill others while talking or texting on
Cell Phones; HB 2820 and HB 3246, the "Right To Repair" bills
allowing individuals and independent shops to work on cars and
bikes using diagnostic procedures, tools and information
currently available only at dealerships; SB 1944, which would
revise Title 47 regarding bikes running auxiliary lighting so
motorcyclists don't get ticketed for increasing visibility to
others by running spotlights; and HB 3241, the "MOTORCYCLE
INTERSECTION BILL" addressing bikes being stuck at controlled
intersections. PLEASE don't use the term "Dead Red" when
talking to your Legislator on this one, as we've determined that
the term only causes confusion and negative feedback. On the
Senate side, SB 1700 is roughly the Senate equivalent of HB
3241--it's entitled the "MOTORCYCLE STOPLIGHT BILL", authored by
Sen. Bass. Remember, SB 1700 and HB 3241 deal with the issue of
motorcycles not triggering the light to turn green at
intersections. Many thanks to Holly, ABATE's Political
Director, for getting this information out--she has a number of
other bills to release information about, particularly on the
Senate side, so expect additional items to be addressed. Please
start reading online or in the newspaper about these important
measures to be better informed when you talk to your
Legislators. You can also expect ABATE to keep you enlightened
as well on bill progress. One other point: it's extremely
important that we flood our legislators with Phone Calls WHEN
HOLLY CALLS FOR IT TO BE DONE, so please be ready to do so when
ABATE sends out an Action Request! We've proven repeatedly over
the years that a bill stands a significant chance of getting
passed when a large volume of Voters actively calls in to
support it. Please contact our ABATE Hotline at: 405-329-7254
if you have any questions on these issues, or get hold of me.
A perfect example of what I'm talking about took place right
after the 2008 Session began, when our Riding Community was
faced with its first challenge. State Senators Ballenger and
Barrington announced that they wouldn't allow SB 1700 to be
heard in committee. Some of you might remember that both of
these Senators were instrumental in allowing last year's version
of the bill to die in committee. When these gentlemen were not
going to hear the bill regardless of language, ABATE of
Oklahoma asked for all Oklahoma Motorcyclists to call both of
these Senators' offices respectfully urging that this important
bill, vital to reducing motorcyclist deaths and injuries, be
heard and passed out of committee. Bikers were courteous to the
officials and their staffs, but were also firm in strongly
requesting that this bill be heard! There are at present over
93,000 registered motorcycles and trikes in Oklahoma, and if a
significant percentage of us contact legislative officials, we
stand a good chance of routinely achieving our goals! SB 1700
is NOT a license for motorcyclists to run Red Lights, but an
important Safety-related measure designed to safeguard lives and
reduce injuries as riders avoid the risk of Tail-End Collisions
at intersections from inattentive or drunk drivers, and
reduce accident threats by not having to edge into intersections
or skirt intersections and drive through parking lots. This
legislation has been passed in several states such as Tennessee,
North Carolina, Arkansas and Wisconsin, and not only has chaos
NOT ensued, but the concept has directly contributed to reducing
motorcyclist deaths and injuries in those states! It's high
time Oklahoma passes similar legislation.
Within eight hours after announcing the Action Alert, I got
word from Holly that due to the large volume of calls,
e-mails and messages, SB 1700 WOULD be heard in committee. That
just shows what a major impact can be made when a large number
of Americans act with unity of purpose. Score one for our
side! Of course, this is just the first step, and we'll need to
support this and our other issues all the way to the Governor's
desk. What we're doing now is calling all the individual
Committee members urging them to vote "Yes" on SB 1700, and then
we'll need to call all Senators when the bill reaches the Senate
Floor for a full vote. As an aside, Holly also needs
information on as many intersections as possible, especially
in Oklahoma's larger towns (like Woodward or Lawton and larger),
where motorcycles won't trigger the light to turn green, so
ABATE can provide a database to the Legislature. Otherwise, our
elected officials might not be convinced there is a sufficient
problem where SB 1700 needs to be passed. So, please take the
time to e-mail Holly ASAP at
hlswinford@yahoo.com with the subject header "ABATE" with
those intersection locations--it'll help our cause! I'm very
appreciative to those of you who Register to Vote, and take the
time to actively participate in the political process--you're
exercising the Rights our men and women in uniform put
themselves in harm's way to safeguard!
Before I close, I want to touch on what's probably going to
quickly develop into an explosive situation, which you can read
more about on our ABATE Website and on the MRF Website,
www.mrf.org U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary
Mary Peters, apparently an avid motorcyclist, got into an
accident where she ran into her husband's bike while not paying
attention. She is now embarking on a campaign to pervert the
original purpose of SAFETY-LU funding, which was designed to
support Rider Education and Motorcycle Awareness programs. If
Mary Peters has her way, the 2010 version of SAFETY-LU grants
for the individual states will be directly tied to the
advancement of Mandatory Helmet Law Passage, and she's lobbying
Congress to allow states to use these moneys for that purpose.
That's kind of a "backdoor Federal Blackmail" approach, and she
needs to be educated as to the error of her ways. It seems like
she's bought into the NHTSA's mistaken campaign of emphasizing
Crash Survivability over Crash Prevention. Instead of waiting
for the DOT Secretary to convince some anti-Motorcycling
Congressperson to introduce this legislation, we riders might
adopt this course of action. Consider writing letters to your
Senators and Representatives asking them to do the following: 1.
Write Sec. Peters and request she withdraw her proposed
amendment. 2. Speak with your state's Congressional
Delegation against this Sec. Peters' letter in an attempt to
gather votes against this amendment if she does not withdraw it
and it becomes a written bill. We need to be proactive in
voicing our opposition to this proposal from the State level, as
opposed to reacting to a Federal-level bill once it's
introduced--that would create a hole which would be much more
difficult for us to climb out of. With this being a
Presidential Election year, Peters will be stepping down from
her job with a little bit of luck--then she can take a Rider
Education Course and learn how to AVOID crashes instead of
focusing on Mandatory Helmet Laws as a Magic Remedy! I swear,
it sounds like she and Gary Busey (remember THAT other
inattentive rider) can sing a duet!!
Tiger's Tip O' The Month: With Spring
approaching, everyone's ready to hop on the bike and scream out
of the garage, I'm sure. However, it's always a good idea to
"Pre-Flight" your scoot before takeoff, especially checking the
oil and tires. Employ the "FINE-C" check: Fuel on; Ignition on;
tranny in Neutral, Engine switch on; and Choke pulled out (for
us dinosaurs without Fuel Injection). Oh, and don't forget to
knock that kickstand up when you take off! Well, I'll wrap this
up for now, but you can count on ABATE to keep you informed on
how things continue to improve for riders in the Sooner State
this year. Enjoy the steadily warming temperatures, and watch
out for the far too-many motorists who get out there after
losing control on St. Patrick's Day. Keep riding Safely, Sober
and Aware, and I'll see you on the Road sometime soon.
Keep It On The Black Strip Between The Trees,
Tiger Mike
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