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TOM CHRISTOFES, JR
STATE LEGISLATIVE COORDINATOR
Tom Christofes, Jr.
717-566-7106 • 717-566-9828 (fax)
Email Legislative Director!
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Motorcycle Safety
It’s May, Motorcycle Safety Awareness month, and that means that our blue and white signs “Look Twice, Save a Life, Motorcycles are Everywhere” are popping up all over the state. It also means Freedom Weekend and the Rights Rally. This year Freedom Weekend is scheduled for May 17 and 18 at the VFW picnic grounds in Shellsville, and the Rights Rally will be held the next day, May 19, 1:00pm at the state capitol in Harrisburg. We need to have a strong turn out at the rally to let the legislators know that we have not gone away and that we are still united in our fight for protecting bikers’ rights.
Hazen is scheduled for June 20, 21, and 22. This is A.B.A.T.E. of PA’s biggest fundraiser. The profits from Hazen help finance the running of our first class ABATE of PA office and the running of this organization. I hope to see all of you there. New at Hazen this year – A dunk tank! Come out and try your luck.
Tickets for Hazen are available in advance on our new web site. If you can’t make it, buy a ticket anyway and help support ABATE. State bike raffle tickets are also available on the web site. www.abatepa.org
I hope that you all took the time to do the e-mail to your federal legislators that I wrote about in last months ‘Between the Lines”, dealing with the health care correction bills. We have over 6000 members in this organization, if only half would do this, the representatives would be overwhelmed. They would have to do something. They don’t receive that many letters on any one subject. If you didn’t do the e-mail, please take the time to do so.
USDOT Secretary Mary Peters is lobbying to amend a subsection of the 2010 funding. 2010 funding is money earmarked for the Motorcycle Safety Programs. She wants to allow 2010 funding to be used for states to promote the use of helmets for all motorcyclists. What you need to do is to write to Senators Spector and Casey and to your Congressman or Congresswoman and ask them not to support USDOT Secretary Mary Peters’ amendment to change 2010 funding. To read more about this, go to the MRF website. Click on links on our web site to get to the MRF web site. The Motorcycle Riders Foundation does a great job defending our rights in Washington, DC. I encourage all chapters to become sustaining members of the MRF.
Right now there are many things are happening in Washington, DC. You need to make a visit to your federal legislators. You should try to meet them back home in their home district offices. You can do this easier and with a lot less hassle than by going to DC. The fight is growing in Washington, we need to gain the same working relationship with our legislators at the federal level that we enjoy with our state legislators. Write, visit, e-mail and phone- get the relationship growing.
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