Monday, June 13, 2016

“We Fuel The Judgement Of Those Who Discriminate Against Us”

OFF THE WIRE
“We Fuel The Judgement Of Those Who Discriminate Against Us”
I thought I have seen every thing until my recent road trip to Arizona for their annual bike week event. Among the many events we took part in was riding over to the Dirty Dogg Saloon. Apparently it’s a well known biker bar that has female drink slayers hanging upside down and nearly naked from the rafters with a hula-hoop. What I immediately noticed about this bar when parking my bike was a very large BAR RULES sign. Among the rules on this sign was a clearly in bold letters policy forbidding motorcycle club colors. Okay, so we took off our cuts and locked them away and stood in this long line to get in. The second thing I noticed was a USMC flag and at least 20 plus Veterans with motorcycle club cuts standing in line. When we finally got to the door and this extremely huge bouncer checked our ID’s, we were able to make it in. Once inside, there was at least another 40 plus Veterans wearing cuts from a variety of clubs. All of a sudden I spied the cut from a sometimes controversial club walking through that was non-Veteran club oriented yet he was inside. “How did he get in?”, I asked myself.
You are probably already anticipating that I am going to talk shit about how these Veterans with club cuts can freely access a bar that clearly forbids colors from motorcycle clubs, but you are wrong. My club brother is a Veteran and I support our Veterans, but there is something seriously wrong going on here that goes much deeper. This terrible policy I have seen many times before in many places. One of them is also in force at the Route 66 Classic Bar & Grill in Canyon Country, California. They too have a No Colors policy yet they allow members of specific clubs to access even though the sign is posted and their patio is in plain view for all who approach to see and is filled with bikers many of them in club cuts. Many of these establishments post these signs prominently while others post their policies slightly hidden and my guess is so that the policy exist if they should have to use it.
While I gravitate to the point of this topic, it is very evident that there is huge mountains and valleys of division. There is also tons of miseducation and a plethora of discrimination that is actually doing us a great deal of harm than any good and the increase of discrimination in the public and business perception is mostly in part due to events recent and in the past. The mere fact that a NO COLORS policy exist by some bars, restaurants and rallies is mostly due to these major events and thousands of smaller incidences that most of us never hear about yet some business have experienced or in the response by Hooters were posting of a policy to prevent such an incident. I of course certainly feel that any Veteran who served our country in harms way deserves this kind of access, I also strongly feel that the very people in the very country that these Veterans placed their lives into harms way to protect and provided the very freedoms we enjoy that same access.
All of this talk about denial of access, discrimination, rights and division among us has me all frustrated and troubled. The fact remains, there is a large population of our motorcycle club community that doesn’t get along, won’t get along or for whatever reason wants not to get along and because of this there may be far more troubled access issues ahead and worse. At the end of every day, the people who own these business and promote these rallies have the responsibility to assure safety for all of their patrons and staff. They have business that need to survive that feed their children, lifestyle and the local economy. They have employees that they need to keep hired and protected and must have insurance to protect all of that and when a violent incident takes place and people get hurt or killed and property damage and disturbance occurs, the line is a block long of those who hire lawyers and file law suits against these business and rallies for not protecting them, thus a policy restricting certain people from wearing club colors, thus discrimination.
I am a born citizen of this great country of ours and I stand up for my rights but I stay humble, I get along with all clubs, all club members and stay clear of bullshit and trouble because I believe in and enjoy this motorcycle club lifestyle. I really enjoy riding across this country meeting other clubs, touring other cities and kicking it with a beer and a stranger from another club in another state. That’s what I thought I bought into when I joined this lifestyle way back. My wish and my prayer is that all clubs and all members of clubs can get along and co-exist so that we are not continually dismantled, discriminated against and eventually loose our lifestyle.
ML&R
5150, Pyrate Ryderz MC