While
in recent years we have fought some hard fights and won, I am saddened
to say that today is not such a day. HB 2010, our bill to allow adults
to choose whether or not to wear a helmet, was laid on the table in
sub-committee on a 4-2 vote. That means that the bill is dead for the
year. Had it been killed on an up or down vote it would still go before
the whole committee. However, being that it was laid on the table, no
action was taken and the bill simply remains in sub-committee with no
further action. The votes to lay the bill on the table were cast by
Delegate John Cox, Delegate Scott Garrett, Delegate Betsy Carr and
Delegate Barbara Comstock. The Votes against doing so were cast by
Delegates Anderson and Minchew.
The
truly disappointing part of this is that we had the votes this year.
Over the summer, fall and into the winter we had built a majority in the
House and Senate. We had the votes to send it to the governor. That
is most likely why the Speaker of the House, either on his own or at the
request of someone else, had the bill sent to Transportation rather
than Militia, Police, and Public Safety where it has traditionally
gone. The chairman of Transportation, Chairman May, despises our bill.
Even when both our patron, who is a sub-committee chairman on Militia,
and the chairman of Militia himself asked for it to be re-referred the
speaker refused.
We
still had a chance if we could get to a decent sub-committee but that
was already destined as well. Even with friends fighting to get our
bill to a friendly sub-committee, our bill was sent to the worst
possible sub-committee. And to cement our understanding that our bill
was sent there to die, Chairman May came in to watch the vote to ensure
that what he wanted to happen did in fact happen.
That
is in a nutshell what happened to HB 2010. There are a few positives
to take away. We made some new relationships that we can continue to
grow. It will be important to maintain those relationships and keep our
majority so that we can take advantage of future opportunities as they
may arise. It will also be important to continue to increase
memberships in our SMROs, and to continue to raise money so that we will
have the ability to not only take advantage of future opportunities,
but come election time, oppose those who opposed us. We need to let
them know that votes have consequences.
I
want to thank everyone who put in time sending emails, raising money,
talking to neighbors, and going to the capitol. There is no other group
of people I would rather fight with, win or lose, than you. I will
close with an excerpt from a speech by Theodore Roosevelt which I have
heard many times over the years. I heard it most recently at an MRF
conference. The speech, entitled “Citizen in a Republic”, was delivered
in Paris France in 1910. This portion has often been dubbed “The Man
in the Arena”
It
is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong
man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face
is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs,
who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without
error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who
knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a
worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high
achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while
daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and
timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
- Theodore Roosevelt
Matt Danielson
McGrath & Danielson
Tom McGrath's Motorcycle Law Group
1-800-321-8968
Motorcyclelawgroup.com
