OFF THE WIRE
"Legally the one percenters dont have a case, but then again they don't worry about legality do they"
Robyn Wuth(DFC)
goldcoast.com.au
AS you read this, hold this picture in your mind.
I am sitting at my desk with a black leather vest over my clothes.
Actually, I couldn't afford leather, so it's vinyl and very, very sweaty -- but that's not the point. No my friends, the point is, I am wearing the first vest of the GCBullies MC -- media club, that is. Gold Coast chapter.
Yes, we have created our own gang -- bullies seem to rule this town, so I thought we'd better join.
Check out our insignia -- a skull and two poison pens. Very menacing. Be afraid, be very afraid.
This is not a club for just any one, oh no, just like the company mantra, this is "just for us".
We started out with black vinyl pants, but with the humidity this week it created something of a health issue so we stuck with cotton three-quarters. I think it adds a cool sophistication, don't you?
I think it's a sign of gangs moving with the times; adapt or die.
You don't have to stick with the same black leather boots, unwashed T-shirts and black jeans. If all the other bikies rode off a cliff, would you?
Just to set the rules, no porn and prawn night in this MC, we're more of a documentaries and doughnuts night kinda gang.
More cucumber sandwiches than lines of cocaine.
We shall meet for "church" whenever I'm rostered on.
The point is, I love this patch.
I wear it with pride, and damn it, I've earned it.
So what are you going to do about it, Mr Angry Nomad?
This week, we had the ludicrous situation of the Nomads MC sending a warning to a social bikers club, the Gold Coast Cruisers, warning them to remove a patch designed by a club member's wife.
The patch features someone on a Harley and a patriotic southern cross. Quite harmless.
But some doofus from the Nomads bikie gang said the insignia had to go because it "offends" the outlaw organisation.
I'm sorry, what?
This from a gang that features a swastika?
Now consider the Gold Coast Cruiser Club. They seem to be lovely people who meet up at Worongary for a cuppa and a snack and enjoy a leisurely ride.
They're mums and dads, nanas and granddads, who enjoy riding a motorbike. They have about 160 members -- law-abiding citizens all. Good luck to them, stay safe.
The Nomads Gold Coast chapter measures barely a handful of members and their numbers have dwindled to virtual non existence.
Their clubhouse is rumoured to have shut down due to lack of interest, but still they trade on their outlaw reputation to tell us what we can and cannot wear?
No.
As one delightful text to the chat room from `Ladderman' puts it: "I say the Nomads are a bunch of Gonads! Telling social motorcycle clubs to remove their patches is pathetic. Next the Gonads will be telling the boy scouts and girl guides to remove their patches."
Edmund Burke's thoughts are appropriate here: "In order for evil to flourish, all that is required is for good men to do nothing."
Don't do nothing.