Group Hard at Work

Three of us left the Waffle House, on the south side of Ft.Worth, promptly
at 7:00 PM.. Mike Alvey, his wife Joannie and me..

We cleared the rush traffic congestion of the metroplex somewhere around
Granbury and made our way south toward Brady..

Brady, Tx. is the biker friendly little Hill Country town that is host to
some of the best motorcycle rallies in Texas..One stop in the Rio Grande
restaurant in Stephenville, for top off gasolene and dinner, and we were
making good time..

The city park in Brady was the destination and it already had a few TMRA II
Warriors gathered there.. After the greetings were done, all of us setteled
down to the serious conversation..

The legislative session and dispositions of the Bills which we supported or
opposed was, of course, the concens of all of us.. I'll have to admit,
everyone was sadly disappointed with the performance of the legislators in
our State Capitol.. Preceding Sessions of Legislature would normally produce
more than 3,000 Bills awaiting the Governor's signature, at this stage..
this Session has produced less than 300.. That's less than ten percent
production..

Bills which are critically important to all of us, sit in Committee or have
been sidelined, while such critical issues of which breed of family pets
should be named as the Official Dog of Texas. That is only one example that
ate up the calendar.. The Failure to Yield Bill sits in Committee.. The
Helmet Bill rests on the 17th page of 18, while the State Representatives
debated only 8 of those pages of Bills..(the dog thing being one of those
critical issues) The Insurance Bill never got a hearing, while those
Representatives we sent to Austin discussed the patriotic virtues of decidng
to select the Blue Lacy Gaming Dog, for our State symbol of patriotism.. You
see, the canine symbol is a product of state breeding and as such, deserves
to be debated on the floor of our legislature for hours on end..

Saturday morning came and the meeting of the District Advisors commenced
promptly at 11:00 AM.. Sputnik called the meeting to order and each DA made
his/her reports.. The organization has benefitted by the membership drives
from each district, but TMRA II has a long way to go in the registration of
the owners of some 700,000 motorcycles in Texas..

At 1:00 PM, the general membership meeting was called to order and the
participation of such enthusiastic members from all over Texas was evident.
Even though the disappointment in this Session was apparent, the members who
played a part in the process, has not diminished.. The political turf has
been established in our State Capitol . Motorcyclists' rights will be an
important consideration for the legislative process in the coming months and
years..Determination and resolve of the Bikers of Texas will be troubling
for each of the lawmakers when they return to their districts, after this
Session is ended.. Some of these officeholders will be faced with stiff
opposition for their next election.. Candidates who oppose them will
certainly have issues more important for each of us, than establishing a
State Dog adoption.. Sheesh.. Ya' think ?

Other than being hot, the trip back to Irving, was uneventful .. For a late
Saturday afternoon, the traffic was moderate and flowed smoothly down the
highway.. Not many motorcycles were observed (guess they'd all arrived at
their individual destinations).. I understand there were at least two other
events scheduled for the motorcycle riders of our State.. All told, TMRA II
held a successful gathering and our agenda for the upcoming months will be
productive and beneficial to everyone on two wheels.. That's all folks..
Regards and ride safe..

Your Friend in Irving
Bill Walker

 

its hard to believe that those nuts in Austin

The important thing is that they seemed to have realized that burdening
the public with massive loads of new legislation isn't directly related
to "doing their job". Cutting legislation to 10% of past historical
levels is a good thing. The next step is to get them cracking on the
"abolishing old legislation" side of the equation.

"The government that governs best governs least."

Sooner or later one of the old laws they get to in their "roll back"
process will be one of those that you (we) didn't like anyway.