Oh man you've said your point, we get it. Why not stop with the hate and go back to making positive posts. Your beef with the AMA is that your friends got killed and they did not bother to get involved. If you really want to argue, how did experienced motorcyclists get killed by oncoming traffic? Why did they not take evasive action?
Why do you feel that your friends issue should be their only issue? I just lost a friend that went through some horrible business having his liver fail and taking out the rest of his organs. He kept being told by the VA that he would get a new liver, he didn't. Should I go around telling everyone that the entire VA is horrible? Should I talk smack about the Doctors at the local Hospital that were seeing him? Should I stand on my soap box screaming that medical science is a failure to everyone, everywhere? Honestly if you weren't so full of rage, you would see your reply and think, man this guy sure bitches a lot about things well beyond his control. Does the NRA show up at every single gun related court case? No. Man they would be busy. Did the guy that killed your friends go through the local system? Yes. Did he get a sentence that falls in line with the local standards? Yes he did. Did he qualify for parole after a few years with a decade of supervised probation? Probably. Would others in the same situation get a similar sentence? Probably. Why would the deaths of your friends qualify for a longer sentence and how would the AMA have made that happen. Please quantify your answer with actual laws and sentencing guidelines and state how and why only the AMA could make that happen and why the lawyers that represented your families absolutely could not make that happen at your local level while knowing the local governing laws, sentencing guidelines, judges, prosecutors, and other defenders in the area. If your families choose totally inept people to represent them, then they only have themselves to blame for the outcome.
Call it personal responsibility if you will. Hating the AMA and going on and on in some political debate with Phil isn't going to bring them back, nor will it get the AMA involved in every single local case, nor will it get ABATE to do that either. Knowing what these organizations do on the big picture to help riders is the important part. You still debate the fact that they sell donated bikes to fund their operations and still get pissed when the reasons are fully explained and actually make sense. To that all I can say is, get your head out of your ass. Every year I sponsor a local rally to the tune of $3,000 (feel free to fact check
www.harvestclassic.org 10 years now). I've donated $30,000 to the CTMC and then it all goes to Any Baby Can/Candle Lighters association. If there is any one thing I've learned from donating it's this, I donated it. I gave the money or motorcycle to them, it's theirs to do with whatever they feel will do the most good towards the end result or goal. Does the AMA really need 1,500 1972 Honda Cb350's on display somewhere?
The AMA provides the rally with a means to insure what happens in the fence line is insured for liability reasons. Without them the rally could not afford to have the events that they do or at the least instead of being able to donate 95% of all money collected, they would need to spend 55% of the money on insurance to private firms. In that way they are providing for us on the National level and the Local level as that allows an additional 50% of ticket sales to stay in the community helping young children with their battles with cancer.
Consider that for a minute.
But you won't. From your past responses you'll find a way to twist it all around and make an attempt to slam it back at me as though the AMA gives those kids cancer. You won't sway my opinion as I'm not an AMA supporter myself, I just know they do provide for all of us to some degree and I also understand a word called limitations. So go ahead and spin it for your needs and lets hear it.