ABATE of Michigan President ~ Gary Kopta

Hello everyone, 

 Hope your getting some good riding in while the weather has been good. We all know the cold white stuff will be falling soon.

 Let me start with A.B.A.T.E (A Brotherhood Against Totalitarian Enactments or American Bikers Aiming Towards Education). Another way to look at it is ABATE which is described to mean to reduce, lessen or terminate it. A totalitarian is a total control over aspects of your life such as helmet laws etc.

 Why do I bring this up? Because it seems like we have been drifting away from things since we changed the helmet law. The helmet law never goes away. It seems every year there is a politician in Lansing that has a new helmet law on their desk waiting to submit it. That's why we need to send a big thank you to our Legislative group led by Bear that keeps an eye on things going on. 

 There isn't alot going on in Lansing. They finally settled on a budget so now maybe things can get done. We are kinda regrouping to continue the fight with the insurance situation. It looks like Noel (our lobbyist) who is always working behind the scenes has a few ideas and hopefully we can get something going. When the time comes we may have to send out a call to action for all our members to contact their legislators to support a bill. Hopefully this can happen soon. 

 The MRF meeting of the minds happened last month in Shreveport Louisiana. Jinx (our state MRF rep) told me there was over 400 people there this year. I wish I could have gone but had other things going on that weekend. Next year the MOTM will be in Milwaukee. Hopefully we can get a good group to go. By the way if your not a member of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) why not? The MRF fights for our rights at the national level and just like us they are hurting for membership. If they decide to pass a mandatory helmet law in DC then there is nothing ABATE of Michigan can do about it. Just like the seat belt law which was forced on us they can pass a helmet law and we will be wearing them. You also get $4000.00 death and dismemberment insurance just like the $3500.00 you get for being an ABATE member. So for $60.00 a year you can get $7500.00 worth of insurance. You cant buy insurance that cheap in Michigan so that alone is worth the membership dues. 

   That's it for this month. Ride while you still can.