Columnist
Archives-March '08
I’ve tried. God knows, I’ve tried to rise above the pettiness of the biases running rampant through the divided national motocross series these days. But, after standing back and watching more and more injustices done to the people who make up the national ATV racing community, I can no longer tolerate, as a journalist, some of the things that are being done to manipulate, and I repeat, manipulate the national base of racers to put down one series and uplift the other.
When a group of people proclaim to be about the growth, enhancement and progression of the sport of ATV racing on one hand, and, on the other hand, do everything in their power to suppress anything new that might enhance the growth and progression of the sport because it doesn’t bring them financial gain, and/ or, absolute power over the sport, then I have to say...”Stop killing the sport your supposed to be promoting.”
It makes no sense why certain people of certain groups want their cake and to eat it too when they can’t even seem to be able to bake a decent cake in the first place. Much less throw a party where the cake is offered to all in attendance, not just a select few.
Now, with that analogy as a mind opener as to just who I’m talking about, let’s take a look at some recent shenanigans these folks have pulled, or attempted to pull off, to keep the ATV racing community bumfuzzled about how great they are and how much they’re doing for the sport. What they are doing, which is perfectly legal and rather media savvy, is to take statements by individuals, OEMs and other groups, have a highly talented writer weave these statements into very well written press releases which reflect, somewhat, what was actually stated, but, which after treated with their slant, makes it seem that they are the only series in the universe and that they are the cat’s meow.
Many, probably most, of the people who read these press releases aren’t aware of what’s been done to the factual accuracy of the content, but, there are a lot of people monitoring these releases and, as of lately, eyebrows have been raised as to just exactly how far these people are willing to go to perpetuate a falsehood. Don’t they realize that what Lincoln said years ago still applies today...”You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of them all of the time.”
I must admit at this point that not all, and I repeat, not all of the members of this group are of this mind-set. There are members of the group who are genuinely interested in the enhancement, growth and progression of the sport for the good of the whole and they remain members of the group to see that their worthy agendas aren’t thrown out with the wash water. I, for one, shudder at the thought of arriving at a national motocross event in 2010 and still being greeted by tomato sticks and repeater banners, and, a T-shirt salesman and a promoter with a cattle prod.
David H. Screws / publisher ATV Racin' Extra / ATV Pro Racing / ATV Young Guns
2010 Shudder
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