Hello,It was a HUGE Success!!!

If you were there, I'm sure you'll never forget it. We were recognized from the floor in a Resolution by Representative Norma "Da Lady" Chavez, in her Leather, along with (after an Ammendment) Sponsorship by the ENTIRE House!!! Senate District 22 was well represented too. ALL of the SD 22 Chapters were had Warriors present, both at the Sunday meeting, and Monday at the Capitol. Sputnik personally assigned Smiley (Asst Coordinator - Lake Granbury Liberty Riders) to guide people to their Representative and Senator's offices. When he made the assignment, she said, "...but I don't have a Yellow Ribbon...". To which Sputnik replyed, "...You don't need a ribbon; You're Smiley!...". Her and Momma (thank you Momma) walked up and down the Halls of the State Capitol, and into the offices, introducing people to their employees ALL day. She had an emergency at home, but she held off until she helped fill the gallery with every available biker we could find. We packed that place and made it ROAR!!! Several Standing ovations from the floor, and many fine statements. We'll have to hold them to those gracious words, and work WITH them to produce legislation that we need.

Rep Da Lady had a big cake (with Harley's on it) and personally invited several of the SD 22 Warriors to follow her to her office for some, and we did! My daughter still has blue fingers from the part of the icing, and we all had blue teeth and lips for awhile, but it was gooooood! I'll upload pics to the Legislative Day website asap. Special thanks to Sandy Duckett for helping my daughter Laena watch me. ;-) Representative Terri Hodge had some questions for Laena too, but she evaded them. :-D

Nobody from East Texas called today and said he's been swamped with calls about Legislative Day. They got TV coverage today, and said it all looked good. I didn't notice anything here, but if anyone did, let me know.

For everyone whether you made it or not, we'll need to be able to go back during Committee Hearings on our Bills that are making their way thru the system. Also, the Texas ABATE Confederation has their "Breakfast with the Bikers" coming up, and that's another good time to go en masse to the Capitol to visit your employees (Senators and Representatives).

Ride Safe and Free (while U steelcan)

Greg Bodovsky
Senate District 22 Advisor
Texas Motorcycle Rights Association
www.tmra2.org
LET THOSE WHO RIDE DECIDE

--
First they came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.
Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945

Update 1/23/07

Legislative Day was not as good as it should have been on Monday. Many of those who did show up didn't stay long enough to hear the Resolution read on the House Floor by Rep. Norma Da'Lady Chavez praising bikers as the defenders of the constitution and the right of the people to be heard.
Reps. Chuck Hopson and Borris Miles were Co-Authors.

We walked and talked from shortly after 7:00am until after 4:00pm telling the new legislators they were welcome to our House, only as long as they served the people and not the corporations. Our government has been for sale long enough. We told them that when being re-elected became their top priority we would have to take them out of our House and find someone to replace them. Most of them appeared to take us seriously. We have two more members in the House. Rep. Terri Hodge and Rep. Borris Miles.

Dee, Robert of ABATE and I met with Senator Armbrister who is now a Legislative assistant to the governor. Equal Access and the Helmet Bill were the Bills we were most concerned with how the governor would treat them. Senator Armbrister carried both these Bills for us when he was a Senator so he was quite familiar with their history. He said he would speak with the governor on our behalf.

Da'Lady, Mando and I met with Speaker Craddick concerning our Transportation Bills. After explaining the Bills we also pointed out that we could not get fair treatment from Chairman Krusee. He said that is no way to run an office and I will speak with Mr. Krusee. After a long day we finally got back to the hotel and saw bikers on all the news channels on the TV. It was very good coverage.

We watched "The Trailer Park Show" on channel 17 and Pokey gave us very good exposure during his show. He also praised our TV show as being the best show on TV. Tuesday Dee, Jenifer, Jerry and I went back and made the rounds again. I stopped in and spoke to Jim Pitts for a short time, just long enough to make an appointment with him for Monday morning. He asked if we were running the helmet Bill again to remove the insurance clause and I told him yes. He said I should talk to Senator Wentworth about it. I told him we had tried to talk to him about it but he wouldn't talk to us.
Jim said he talked to me and he said he hopes you do try to take that amendment off because then he will raise the amendment to $100,000 insurance. Guess we know where we stand on that. We spent a good deal of time discussing our options and decided "dam the torpedos, full speed ahead." If we can't get enough support to stop Wentworth then let' pay the price and put them back on.

Did get some good news though. The Equal Access Bill by Rep. Senfronia Thompson is HB 706. Pass the word around to all the riders it is time to start writing those letters. Ask that they pull up HB 706 and have the Representative look at it and read the position paper on it. Ask that they respond to you whether or not they will support the Bill. Then get in touch with the office and let us know where they stand on the Bill.

Pass it on.
Sputnik

House Resolution Honoring Texas Bikers on Legislative Day in Austin.

http://www.tmra2.org/images/hr00088f.htm