From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: rehash of fandom
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 19:20:23 -0400
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 12:35 PM
Subject: [WSFA] Re: rehash of fandom

> At 12:14 PM 4/21/05 -0400, Ted White wrote:
> >From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
> >> At 06:07 AM 4/21/05 -0700, N Lynch wrote:
> >> >--- "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com> wrote:
>
> >> You don't have to be primarily a charity group to get seen as one by
the
> >> general public, and therefore have some of your odder behaviors
accepted.
> <snip>
> >
> >I don't think "the general public" sees "bikers" as "primarily a charity
> >group"
>
> Where did anyone say they did?  I said they *didn't* have to be to get
the
> attitude benefits from the public.

No, what you said (and I quote directly from above, but *with emphasis*)
was "You don't have to be primarily a charity group *to get seen* as one by
the general public."  And I said that bikers *weren't* "seen" that way.

> >-- even during the Rolling Thunder gathering (maybe most of all
> >then).
>
> I've ridden in Rolling Thunder (once, last year).  It's not so much a
> "gathering" as a "parade" (which started out as a "protest march" on
wheels
> and still is for many), though I suppose you have to gather together to
> start one of those (final staging is at the Pentagon...filled more than
one
> big lot with bikes last year, and that's parked nose to tail, and
handlebar
> plus dismount space wide over every square foot, not one to a space).

I called it a "gathering" because it draws bikers (theoretically all
Vietnam vets) from all over the country.  You may not be aware of it, but
in the days preceeding and following the actual Rolling Thunder parade
thousands of motorcycles, usually in groups, show up on local highways and
expressways.  The vast majority of their riders look kinda scruffy and
Hells-Angelish:  wild and unkept.  And this, I think, reinforces the
public's image of all bikers:  "Oh, look, Elmer!  Those big ugly bikers are
here for that parade of theirs.  I hope they don't take over the town -- I
hear they do things like that."   The fact that Channel 4's Jim Vance is
one of those bikers doesn't dent the perceptions of such people.

--Ted White