Richard, Yes, parking your guns at the door can be a great strategy - unless you are trying to negotiate with someone possessing a black-belt in karate.
To me, avoiding support for policies proven to improve bicycling because they are objectionable to the "we want a government you can drown in a bathtub" crowd is basically signing on to live constrained by their agenda. In other words, you are deciding to serve the non-bicycling-related interests of that group in preference to some of the bicycling-related needs of a good chunk of the current membership of the BFW. And to be clear, I am speaking most directly to the BFW's support (or absence of support, depending on what document you read) for Wisconsin's current smart growth law. - Matt Logan. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Richard Schwinn Sent: Friday, November 02, 2007 11:38 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Bikies] Vagueness in Richard Schwinn's Statement - Per EricWesthagen Eric, For purposes of my being a member, or even a board member, it doesn't matter whether or not I support or oppose a particular issue. It matters that I support cycling. If I'm a director, I need to be able to support the right moves for cycling, even if it's in conflict with my own views. If it's a big enough conflict, I need to get off the board. Two decades ago I started working on the original BIA with Bill Wilkinson - head of the Bicycle Federation of America. Trying to get our rather cutthroat industry leaders together is harder makes herding cats a cakewalk. Bill's favorite saying was that we needed to "park our guns at the door", so we could focus on our common issues. It worked and became the foundation for the industries support of bike advocacy today. Whether it's Smart Growth, global warming or any of the host of other issues we confront every day, parking our guns at the door will help us move forward. I'd agree with you that we need to limit our lobbying activities to cycling issues and not the broader topics. It does a disservice to our members not just by misleading them but by creating enemies of cycling for these off-topic. Speaking of off-topic, I would think there are a number of listserves dealing specifically with land use and smart growth issues. Do you post to them? Thanks, Richard _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
