Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall Tallahassee update-How you can help

 A TIME OF REFLECTION

RESPECT

HONOR

AND 

HEALING

The 3/5's scale replica of the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall will arrive in Tallahassee Thursday evening November 6th, Hosted by the Vietnam Vets of America, Big Bend Chapter 96.

WALL ESCORT: ALL MOTORCYCLE RIDERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO PARTICIPATE:
Motorcycles will stage at the Golden Corral Parking Lot on Monroe near Lake Ella at 7:30am
Kickstand Up (KSU) at 9:00am

Vietnam/Legacy Vets will lead the escort followed by Patriot Guard Riders (Fly your Flags), followed by as you arrive. This procession will be large. It is suggested that you arrive early to facilitate staging.

Route will be police Escorted around the Capital and back to Lake Ella where all security duties will be handed off to the Veterans.

Remember, this is an Honor.

11-7 there will be an Opening Ceremony and Fly-over at 7:00pm.  To maintain the dignity of and attitude of respect for this event it will not be a political circus.  It will be a short opening ceremony followed immediately by the beginning of the reading of the names of the fallen. The names of all 58,274 fallen will be read. Documents and Counselors will be available from 7:00 am to 7:00pm while the wall is present.

11-10  Open House at the Tallahassee Vet Center, 548 Bradford Road, 950-942-8810
Free food and drinks, info regarding the Dept of Veterans Affairs, Vet Center Program and other VA benefits. This coincides with the USMC's birthday.


11-11 VETERANS DAY: Free to all. Sit down breakfast hosted by American Legion Post 13, 229 Lake Ella Drive 850-222-3383. Parade starts at 11:00 with Post 13's float and escort participating.
Closing Ceremony at 5:00pm at Lake Ella.

HELP that is NEEDED and WELCOMED:

SET UP AND TAKE DOWN: HELP IS NEEDED PUTTING THE WALL UP AND TAKING IT DOWN. Contact Joe Griener at 850-877-3656 to volunteer



READERS:  People who are able to read clearly, to take turns/shifts reading the names on the wall. Contact Becky Ekard at 878-7596 or beccard@embarqmail.com if you wish to volunteer.
must be 14 or older.


LOCATOR'S: This involves helping people who are searching for names on the wall. They are listed by date fallen and not alphabetically. You will be instructed on how to do this. The readings will be from 8:00 am to 9:00pm except Tuesday when they will stop at 6:00pm. Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday are especially in need.

SECURITY: Their will be 24-7 security on this wall.
Contact Chuck Royce 545-9367 or Dan Radford @ 926-6235

SPECIAL REQUEST for the computer savvy (in other words you may have to get creative):
An accurate list of the fallen from:

El Salvador, Iranian Hostage Rescue attempt, Persian Gulf 1991, Panama, Grenada and Libya

All other inquires should go to 850-224-8838 or Vietnam Veterans of America website at
http://vva96.org/ 

We will update as info becomes available.

Please do not volunteer unless you can keep your commitment.

(The information above is subject to change as conditions warrant. Please keep abreast of updates)Add to Technorati Favorites

O.K. Heres really why Local LEO can not provide escorts to returning servicemen

This was like one of those days when your going, damn why did I leave my camera at the house.

See I allowed myself to get talked into doing a show and tell gig at a local elementary school.  They were having "Vehicle day." This is like an annual gig where they get all sorts of vehicles out to the school and let the kids look at them.  Now don't ask why allowed myself to do this. Like it's 8:15 in the morning. I got kicked out of school, twice. And I'm not a big fan of kids. Especially little ones. They scare the hell out of me. So like I got really bad Guilt issues and can't say not only no, but "hell no", or I'm a masochist.

I did manage to get even with a couple of them though. I would wait till they got behind my bike and then crank it up. Psych!

I digress, I did it.

Anyway, like I end up being really impressed. Like this thing was big. They had all kinds of rigs out there that can do all sort of things. I was especially impressed by the DEP vehicle with all their implements of whatever. But the Ambulance guy next to me scared the hell out of me.  He kept lecturing the kids on what happens when your heart stops.

Well my guilt trippin masochistic self also has a slightly hypochondriac side that had about 4 heart attacks listening to his rap over and over.

BUT TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER:  I counted two Tallahassee police department motorcycles and a undercover Tallahassee car.  I also counted two Sheriff MC's and a sheriff patrol vehicle.

Keep in mind now. These folk were out there from like 8:15 to till after noon. O.K. these are the same folk that tell us they can not provide escorts for returning servicemen because they do not have the resources.  These people lie.

Now don't get me wrong. Despite my feelings about kids I kinda figure this is a good thing to do. After all, it gets them out of math and science and stuff for a little while.  And it probably is a learning experience because in their whole life they probably ain't never seen a police car, fire truck or city bus. So hell I ain't against it.

But this just adds another nail in the lying mouths of those that say they do not have the resources to pay respect and honor to those who give their lives for us.

This is where servicemen rank in Tallahassee/Leon county:

Crime
FSU
setting up Rachel Hoffmans to get killed
horses
elementary schools


Note: I did not add servicemen to the list.Add to Technorati Favorites

D.O.T. Secretary, Mary Peters ignores Biker Rights activists and settles for failure

Now if you read the previous posts you one would hope that it has been fairly demonstrated  how lack of "Action" sabotages our rights as "Bikers" (I use the term loosely).

Following is excerpted from
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Highway Administration
[FHWA Docket No. FHWA-2005-23112]
Motorcyclist Advisory Council to the Federal Highway
Administration
AGENCY: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of meeting of advisory committee and change to
membership. Posted here:

This notice also serves to identify a change in the MAC-FHWA
membership due to a change in the relationship between Mr. Steven
Zimmer, one of the original members of the MAC-FHWA, and ABATE of Ohio,
making him ineligible for the position for which he was nominated. Mr.
James D. ``Doc'' Reichenbach II, from ABATE of Florida, will replace Mr. Zimmer on the Council.

The FHWA anticipates that the MAC-FHWA will meet at least once a
year, with meetings held in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, and
the FHWA will publish notices in the Federal Register to announce the
times, dates, and locations of these meetings. Meetings of the Council
are open to the public, and time will be provided in each meeting's
schedule for comments by members of the public. Attendance will
necessarily be limited by the size of the meeting room. Members of the
public may present oral or written comments at the meeting or may
present written materials by providing copies to Ms. Fran Bents,
Westat, 1650 Research Boulevard, Rockville, MD 20850-3195, (240) 314-
7557, 10 days prior to the meeting.

The agenda topics for the meetings will include a discussion of the
following issues 1) Barrier design; (2) road design, construction,
and maintenance practices; and (3) the architecture and implementation
of intelligent transportation system technologies.

Now once again we warned that this could happen and requested people take action.  We can only assume that by the failure of people to take enough action, that they were not satisfied with getting screwed at the state level, that they obviously have a large supply of preparation H, and are willing to get what Florida has got from the D.O.T. too.

The absurdity is evidenced by a few of the comments to the post that are reproduced here sans names.

You've got to be kidding. Doc can't ride a motorcycle, let alone advise someone about it. Think of all the people on the capital when Doc forgot to put his kickstand down and laid his bike over. Now you want to ask his advice? This guy is a crook. He is stealing from ABATE, now you want to give the carpetbagger a chane to steal from the nation

and

Pay off from Lopez maybe?   The bill is dead the bill is dead, ding dong the bill is dead.

and

I'm not sure why you guys are so upset...the agenda format confussed James when they used the word intelligent........"The agenda topics for the meetings will include a discussion of the following issues 1) Barrier design; (2) road design, construction, and maintenance practices; and (3) the architecture and implementation of intelligent transportation system technologies."

How much experience do you think he has in any of the above catagories?

and

Actually you are probably right in more ways than one.

D.O.T. has little credibility.

The ABATE of Florida President has no credibility with anybody other than the less than 1% of Florida bikers that are still hallucinating from the kool-aid and are know licking the posterior of the Grand Blue Smurf sing, "were in the money.........." (which of course they ain't but he is)

So when D.O.T. come out with whatever conclusions they come out with it is going to be all the easier to discredit them.

It must be Karma, Mary Peters and James D. Reichenbach a marriage made in heaven.

But I do have to wonder, Considering Doc' impotence in the Florida legislature, will it be Richard Lester that consummates the marriage?

Now we can and have linked to the numerous incompetency's, misstatements (some may choose to interpret that to mean "lies", some may not) and financial questions surrounding this gentleman, James D. Reichenbach, president/lobbyist of  ABATE of Florida , Board of Directors of Ambulance chasing Aim/NCOM. Search this site. IT ain't like we have tried to hide them.

So we will try a different tact.  We challenge anybody from ABATE of Florida to provide us a list of the accomplishments of their lobbyist over the last 10 years that did not involve retreat, compromise or surrender,  that has increased the rights the "Biker Community."

We know there are some ABATE members that read this site so bring it on. Tell us what justifies the above appointment.Add to Technorati Favorites

And so "NOW" the crying starts? HB137 YOU GOT WHAT YOU ASKED FOR!

While at a local Bike Night last night a fellow rider says to me, rc, what are we going to do about this law? I'm like what law? He points to his custom Harley with the, you got it, vertical tag and says,

"I'm not gonna pay $300.00 to make that comply with the law." He goes on to say on to say, "we have to get this law repealed."

Well I wanted to go Ballistic! I didn't, but wanted to. See I don't have a vertical tag and I don't do wheelies on my bagger. So why should I give a damn about your "vertical" tag?

Especially, ESPECIALLY, ESPECIALLY Since we started posting on this bill when we first learned of it's introduction 9-27-07 here:
Sport Bikers and the rest of us beware-bikes to be confiscated

On 1-12-08 we posted the following
A brief chronology of FL HB137 and the duplicity of ABATE of Florida
updating the numerous posts we were making while the legislature was debating this bill and our efforts to stop it. AND OUR CALLS TO THE BIKER COMMUNITY TO HELP STOP IT!

Here we posted: 9/17/08 ABATE of Florida finally sees the light HB 137 is very Bad law
Wherein ABATE of Florida admits that the law they initially asked people not to fight was not a very good law. Whoops.

This was a joint effort with Bruce and Rays Forum where he actually counted the posts on his forum relating to HB137 and counted over 200 posts from concerned activists around the country. Note I said around the country, because for the most part Florida Bikers sat on there ASS!
Sent out by Bruce of Bruce and Rays Forum
Wherein he includes the following paragraph:

OF COURSE THERE ARE "PROBLEMS WITH HB 137"!!! That is why the American
Motorcyclist Association (AMA), Bikers Of Lesser Tolerance (BOLT), Dara
"Sam" McLain, Robert "RC" Conroy, Rev. John "Rogue" Herlihy, myself and many
other dedicated freedom fighters ... pretty much everybody except your
corrupt and incompetent lobbyist, James "Doc" Reichenbach II ... spent much
of the last year trying to defeat it. At our website and forum alone, you
will find over 200 articles, postings and email alerts sent out regarding
"HB-137":

(NOTE: "many other dedicated freedom fighters"
alludes to a very small percentage of the biker population.)

Living in the capital city of Florida, we put out a monthly local rag called "Let Freedom Reign" Wherein during the legislative session we printed an update on HB137 and other bills of interest in every issue. Along with begging "FLORIDA BIKERS TO GET OFF THEIR ASS AND GET INVOLVED".

Sam and I, and after being called out publicly re his misstatements and lack of knowledge
the president/lobbyist of ABATE of Florida attended the committee meetings for this bill, 802 and
1992 fighting against these bills. Well Sam and I anyway. The ABATE of Florida spent his time
trying to compromise and make Brownie points.

During this process we begged sport bikers and other riders to help us. To come to the capital and
speak out. How many showed. NONE!!!!

NOW ABATE of Florida and others want this law repealed. Well good fucking luck. I can guarantee you that the only way this law gets repealed is if you give up some other right in an

ass kissing compromise. Once a LAW is PASSED you are usually left with the COURT as your option

to get it overturned. And guess what? There is know constitutional basis on which to overturn this law.

So now why would I want to go BALLISTIC when this law is not going to apply to me (well lets discount the speeding part) or Sam (won't apply to her at all she doesn't speed. She's a safe rider.).

BECAUSE SOME OF US FREAKING UNDERSTAND THAT EVERY FREEDOM LOST MEANS THEY WILL JUST TAKE ANOTHER ONE!!!!!

What did the "BIG BAD BIKER COMMUNITY" of Florida teach the Florida Legislature last session?

That we are a bunch of ALL TALK NO ACTION WUSSESS that will roll over and let them do whatever they want to us.

So here is my suggestion, don't pay the $300.00 to turn your tag around. After all we know the cops are gonna let a lot slide and use the law to profile others. And so whats the big deal, you have never been profiled right? And for those who have been profiled, well hell that's their tough luck.

So instead run around with your vertical tag until somebody else gives a cop a hard on and tag your it. Grand fine, moving violation and insurance increase.

Are we still Riding Free?Add to Technorati Favorites