Hi Folks,
I tried to get onto the radio show earlier this evening but kept on getting knocked off, a dialogue box showing up to say that I was already in, and then my AOL would crash, this occurring 4 or 5 times before I gave up. So if Jan or Phil can tell me how to go back and listen to the show I'd appreciate it.
We had a "summit, of sorts here at my home this past weekend, which predictably disintegrated into mostly riding, hanging out and partying into the morning hours. It began with Phil's idea to come up to LA just to hang out, with my suggestion that we go down to a dive on the north end of Venice beach, the only place on the boardwalk with live music. It evolved to draw Mark down from Sacramento, and David, his lovely lady, Tina, and Randy from Nevada. We also had the opportunity to meet Danny, who brought along his Dad for the ride. I think all of us had the aspiration that meeting up together would yield some grand epiphany in terms of where we go from here. But alas, that did not happen, as we first wanted to get out onto the road and ride, and then the music at the bar was great, and partying just took over. For the record I should say that Mark refused to dance with me. But Tina was obliging and we tore up the inner sanctum of the bar a couple of times, getting kicked out the second time, taking our wild-thing out onto the bar patio and then out onto the boardwalk where the homeless and local prostitutes joined in.
Phil did update us on his work down in Oceanside, near San Diego, both to restrict motorcycle checkpoints to DUI enforcement, and to reign in police enforcement of helmet laws. David described the work ongoing in Nevada, including his and others' tactics to ensure their right to open carry throughout the state. Mark talked about his work up North, also in changing the approach of local PDs to helmet law enforcement. There was some good pot that was being passed around the patio outside the bar and so my memory of the more serious stuff may be impaired. But I did read a document that Phil had prepared describing his work with the Oceanside PD. I think Phil intends to publish it, so I won't take the wind out of his sails, as I assume he will share it with our BOLT crowd at some point with the link to the publication.
We missed the opportunity to connect with Mike Osborne who had a conflict. If Mike had shown up, just to have the opportunity to kick around the long term objectives, including to understand more fully his position that the recent CHP policy change voids the Easyriders injunction. That is important to me because I've been pitching to our BOLT CA brothers, principally with Mark, what I perceive as the benefits of returning to the District Court that issued the Easyriders injunction in our next case, rather than file another injunction or declaratory relief case in the California Superior Court.
At one point we were also hoping that Red would come up, but I think Mark said he also ran into a conflict. Phil gave Red the credit for providing the connections within the OPD to make his successful pitch. Of course, Red's long involvement with the issues and BOLT CA strategy might have kept us on track, although I really think that the opportunity just to ride and hang out together was as important as anything substantive we might have achieved.
Don't criticize us too much for squandering our opportunity to get "serious" work done. When my son Sky and I rode for a week with Tony and Vicki, Rogue and his wife, Stormin Norman, Mike Greenwald and FDNY John, meeting up also with Rusty and Kamuts, we also didn't talk much about biker politics. Just putting faces, and the personalities behind them, to the words we share on the Forum, was the thing for me. I think it would be great at some point to bring the whole BOLT clan together at some location, and then making it a once a year event. I guess that's what I took away from this meeting, more than anything else - just the greater feeling of BOLT camaraderie that comes from hanging out.
That's the update on our "summit"; but I'd really like to listen to McGrath's description of the causes of action that the Supreme Court has taken up in South Carolina. If it won't be available to listen to, perhaps someone will summarize it.
Ray
