Quote:
Originally Posted by Chef
"...Yes, people with agendas are watching. We've seen proof of that here this last few weeks. Give them cannon fodder thru your actions on the trail, and your words here in a public and highly visible forum, and watch where they will pop back up and get used against all of us. Measure your words and actions...."
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While I understand and appreciate the point that you are trying to make here; are "watch what you say about how
'the community' (itself) has been addressing issues to date" expressions off-limit in these forums also?
I find it very hard to believe that the off-road community will ever change with the times; recruit new and younger members or actually make good on their promise to be involved/educated in
other areas of the country (where national leaders themselves admit readily continued ignorance); if folks are not
allowed to so much as even
question what is going on in their own backyards involving significant orv issues and those presently unashamedly and without apology spiriting them behind closed doors.
We have an ongoing situation here in Michigan that most of these national orv leaders are well aware of involving 'leaders' they just don't seem willing to
confront for possibly the same 'hear no evil/see no evil' approach I'm hearing here. They know these people very well and realize that they will talk negatively about us and our machines at any opportunity given if it means closing down areas to themselves and themselves only. This isn't 'conjecture'....it is a fact that has been proven time and time again and includes ecologically responsiblr modern maintenance methods (privitization) held hostage for purely selfish reasons affecting literally thousands of miles of trails on this country's largest trail system.
I love the sport as much as anybody else and have tried to support it with untold hours of my time just like many untold others. Yet when you contact these national organizations and ask them what they have to say about
11 people recently showing up for the only
quarterly meeting we have here in Michigan because the people that
they deal with have taken every single issue we have here behind some Oz-like curtain....one begins to wonder if the term "free speech" only pertains to those employed in a local or national non-profit.
Sorry to be so winded; yet when your community is 'represented' by some group claiming to have 22,000 members....yet who publicly refuse to reveal even who they are or what they represent
for over 2 years now.....you tend to be a little 'cycnical' when it comes to who can say what and why.
Thanks for the space to speak my peace and kick me out of here if you'd like; yet I believe that there's a good deal of housecleaning to be done in our
own backyards and that the lack of response one gets from these national leaders when
confronted with these types of large-scale messes....begs a much larger question also.