Posted on 06/01/2008 11:07:48 AM PDT by rottndog
Three hundred thousand bikers spent Memorial Day weekend roaring around Washington in tribute to our war dead, and I stood on Constitution Avenue Sunday afternoon watching a river of them go by, waiting for a gap in the procession so I could cross over to the Mall and look at pictures. The street had been closed off for them and they motored on by, some flying the Stars and Stripes and the black MIA-POW flag, honking, revving their engines, an endless celebration of internal combustion.
A patriotic bike rally is sort of like a patriotic toilet-papering or patriotic graffiti—the patriotism somehow gets lost in the sheer irritation of the thing. Somehow a person associates Memorial Day with long moments of silence when you summon up mental images of men huddled together on amphibious assault vehicles and pilots revving up B-24s and infantrymen crouched behind piles of rubble steeling themselves for the next push.
You don't quite see the connection between that and these fat men with ponytails on Harleys. After hearing a few thousand bikes go by, you think maybe we could airlift these gentlemen to Baghdad to show their support of the troops in a more tangible way. It took 20 minutes until a gap appeared and then a mob of us pedestrians flooded across the street and the parade of bikes had to stop for us, and on we went to show our patriotism by looking at exhibits at the Smithsonian or, in my case, hiking around the National Gallery, which, after you've watched a few thousand Harleys pass, seems like an outpost of civilization.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Enough of this sactimonious crap. I spent six years in the army and don’t owe nobody anything and don’t expect anything from anybody. This is the first time that I have mentioned my service, but I am tired of being preached to. I’ll say it again, I can’t stand the selfishness of bikers and think of them as overgrown playground bullies who are always looking for attention. So there!
I find this by him elsewhere on the Internet:
This is a lesson I was taught in childhood: Thou shalt not create temptations for other people. Lock up your bicycle. Keep your money in your wallet. Keep your diary in your drawer.
It's a good lesson.
You don't quite see the connection between that and these fat men with ponytails on Harleys.
Of course you don't, Keillor. You didn't serve in the military. If you had, you'd recognize most of these "fat men with ponytails" as your former comrades-in-arms.
-ccm
OK, you don't have to. That's your privilege.
But what business is it of yours that others choose to exercise their rights and patriotic expressions in ways that you don't approve of?
Is that a reason to wish them dead?
In all liklihood, you have a hobby or a practice that you enjoy that just might offend somebody else. Would you approve of their wishing you dead?
For cryin' out loud, get some perspective. And some tolerance for others.
” Somehow a person associates Memorial Day with long moments of silence when you summon up mental images of men huddled together on amphibious assault vehicles and pilots revving up B-24s and infantrymen crouched behind piles of rubble steeling themselves for the next push.
You don’t quite see the connection between that and these fat men with ponytails on Harleys.”
Obviously Mr. Keillor, YOU can’t make the connection,
but those “fat men with ponytails”
WERE those infantrymen,pilots, and servicemen.
THEY are not about to let liberals like yourself define Patriotism.
Real Men Envy.
Due respect my ass, balls and all.
And you Sir, are a first class moron, so there.
Like John and Yoko.
It’s clear that the hollow echoes Keilor hears, are reverberating inside his own empty soul.
A real Jackson Browne/James Taylor kind of...non...man.
Cause Garrison, we'd rather have the troops use their gas to kill Islamofascists, and have the bikers use their's just to piss you off.
Awesome. Do you have any more pics?
Nope, you don’t owe anybody anything and I can see why you don’t expect anything from anybody. You and everyone else here with the same stereotypical view of bikers obviously don’t actually know any bikers. Boy would you be surprised if you did.
I was at Rolling Thunder last Sunday and there is not a more patriotic crowd you could ever ask for, most of them Vets and I felt honored to be in their presence.
Many of them are vets themselves, and have certainly earned the right to honor other soldiers in other wars. Even at such solemn occasions as veteran funerals, massed bikers have proved to be our most effective weapon against the Phelps gang. They deserve our respect for this alone.
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