The MRF does not endorse any products or services other than its own product line. This does not apply to political endorsements Vol. 22, No.1 January/February 2017 WHAT’S INSIDE: The Concern on my Face Page 2 The World According to George Jetson Page 3 A November to Remember Page 3 A Dog in the Fight over Fuel Page 5 MRF Legislative Agenda Page 8 MRF Elections Page 11 Stand and be Counted Page 12 Political, Yes... Partisan, No Page 14 Why the Hell do I do This? Page 20 SSMRO Rep Report Page 25 Would you like to receive The MRF Reports digitally? Opt out of the receiving the MRF Reports? Please contact the MRF Office if you would like to no longer receive a hard copy of the Reports. 202-546-0983 or [email protected] Page 2 Motorcycle Riders Foundation January/February 2017 The Concern on My Face Kirk “Hardtail” Willard along for the after meeting ride, to good riddance MRF President from the general public listening in on the discus- sion. In the past couple of years I have personally Our conversation then centered on, well if they spent a good deal of can do it to them what prevents them from doing time attempting to edu- it to other motorcyclists, and why that shouldn’t cate motorcyclists on concern us? If this particular group is allowed to the subject of anti-profil- be banned from existence who next I queried? I ing and why it is so important we continue to am sure in all facets of motorcycling if we allow bring awareness and concern to the thought of a ourselves to be categorized someone can find motorcyclist being profiled simply because of his reason we should be banned as well. One of the or her mode of transportation, style of dress, and descriptions of us that makes my face begin to lifestyle. heat up, especially when used in Europe as it has serious connotations, is the word hooligan. Yep, Case in point, on one of my recent trips to Europe it didn’t take long for the word hooligan to come this November I spent a week in a country that I up and that hooliganism on motorcycles should thought was a typical fairly open minded Euro- be banned. I asked this particular gentleman to pean country, that is until I saw the headlines on describe hooligan behavior on a motorcycle. I as- the news reports and on the front page of all the sure none of us would have escaped his defini- papers I could find. The Government and Law tion. Enforcement community had decided to unilater- ally ban an entire motorcycle club from existence. You see by example if we allow part of our com- Not just some of the members for just cause but munity to be partitioned off then our community the entire club and anything to do with it effective becomes smaller and the outer edges continue to immediately. Seems a few of the bikers inter- be plucked away until eventually it reaches the viewed were in shock that this had so quickly center and throughout this process we risk losing happened and without much warning or even a the freedom as individuals we so depend on. day in court. It wasn’t clear how they were going to wipe them out but it certainly was going to in- So when it comes to the profiling of motorcyclists clude a heavy dose of profiling. you should be able to see the concern on my face. Following my usual modus operandi I sought out some English speaking motorcycling folks inter- estingly from a local small motorcycle club having a meeting in a pub and restaurant from that coun- try and asked them what they thought about it. As expected I got a range of emotion from out- rage to concern to ambivalence to good riddance. The outrage and concern came from the mem- bers of the small riding club as they saw the rele- vancy of the action to them, ambivalence in that it doesn’t affect me from casual riders tagging January/February 2017 Motorcycle Riders Foundation Page 3 The World According to George Jetson Megan Ekstrom reality, all it took was about sixty years. Now we have Facetime Vice-President of on our iPhones, Roomba robot vacuums that help keep our Governmental Affairs & floors tidy and smart watches where, for a steep price, we can Public Relations call, text, schedule appointments through virtual assistants and have two-sided conversations with Siri. It’s funny though, for all As a kid growing up in Ari- the futuristic technologies that the Jetsons showcased, even zona, my Saturday morning back then, George’s main mode of transportation had to be ritual was eating cereal while manually driven. It seems like even the executives at Hanna- watching cartoons. Not only Barbera failed to prophesize that self-driving automobiles was it the one time a week would be a ‘thing.’ But a ‘thing’ they are becoming.... my mom let me eat in front of the television, but it was also a time to ‘check in’ with my favorite characters, the Jetson Fam- Over the last several months, we’ve seen more and more com- ily; George, Jane, Judy, Elroy and of course Rosie the house panies announce plans to pursue the creation and manufacture cleaning robot and Astro the dog. of self-driving cars. Tesla has already been successful, an- nouncing their intention to have an autonomous vehicle ready Even from the perspective of a kid, the technologies enjoyed by 2018 for consumer purchase. Google’s prototype currently by the Jetsons were unfathomable at the time. There were has a fleet of 58 self-driving vehicles being tested on public video phones, a robot that cleaned the house, a watch you streets in California, Washington, Texas and Arizona. could make calls from! At the time, the predictions of this candy-colored television program seemed light-years away. In continued page 4 A November to Remember Jay Jackson in, you need to commit to working for them and support MRF Vice President them financially and otherwise. This was indeed a historic Now that the election is over, whether your candidate won election cycle. I certainly or lost, it's time for us to pull together as a country. Be don't remember anything they all-stars or third stringers, we need to take the play- quite like it, and have ers we have, work hard as a team and go out and play the heard the same from best game of our life. This is the philosophy behind most politicos older than me. locker room pep talks and they've even made movies Whether the results based on it. In the end, the score doesn't always come out pleased or disappointed, I the way you expect. That's why they play the game. suspect that everyone is happy that "the circus" is I do want to congratulate Indiana Governor Mike Pence, over. who did an incredible job in the national spotlight since July. We look forward to working with him in his new role Our system of government may be far from perfect, but it as Vice President of the United States. is definitely the best one out there and I wouldn't trade it for any of the others. Those of us involved in the process ABATE of Indiana has been fortunate to host a "Ride understand it, even if we don't fully agree with it. With the Governor" in each of the four years of the Pence administration (including this year while he was a VP Legislators must be elected to be able to represent the nominee which required coordination with the U.S. Secret people. Campaigning is part of the "business" of politics. Service). Who knows, maybe the MRF will be hosting a The costs however, associated with some of these races "Ride With the Vice President". has become almost obscene. More than 50 million dollars was spent on a U.S. Senate seat in Indiana. Ride Safe, Ride Free, I point these things out for several reasons, but most im- Jay Jackson portantly is that getting into office is not an easy, or inex- pensive, venture. If there is a candidate that you believe Page 4 Motorcycle Riders Foundation January/February 2017 ...According to George Jetson continued influence of other distractions. GM, Daimler, Volvo, Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover, Audi and BMW Though there is controversy over the blame, a recent Florida have also announced plans to pursue the technology. Even Department of Transportation study found that bikers just may Uber, the car service that lets you request a ride from point A to be right; after analyzing ten years of data, a researcher found point B through your smartphone, has announced plans to take that 60% of the time, drivers of cars and trucks were at fault in driverless cars to the streets, literally. In August, Uber an- accidents between automobiles and motorcycles, often failing nounced they would soon start deploying driverless cars (with to yield the right of way to motorcyclists. Studies like the one safety drivers in the front seat ready to take the wheel) to trans- done in Florida can help support the notion that motorcyclists port actual Uber passengers around the streets of Pittsburgh. may be safer in a world of driverless cars. Ultimately, the goal for Uber is eliminating drivers all together. Others however, have expressed concerns over whether mo- Of course, along with most new technologies, the government torcyclists on the road can be accounted for by the au- will have to play catch-up to this evolving area as it relates to tonomous technology, given their smaller dimensions.