Posted on 12/10/2009 1:48:41 PM PST by earlJam
Personalized license plate owner: It's an ode to Harleys, not racism
By Chad D. Lerch | Muskegon Chronicle
December 10, 2009, 3:11PM
MUSKEGON COUNTY -- Richard Macaulay is a Harley-Davidson lover through and through.
The Muskegon man said he takes pride in his Harley-Davidson Dyna Wide Glide motorcycle, which he keeps in immaculate condition.
Macaulay said he was shocked to receive a letter from the Michigan Secretary of State's office recently stating that his personalized license plate of seven years had been revoked.
The Secretary of State's office informed the retired factory worker that a complaint from a Muskegon Heights woman had surfaced, claiming the personalized tag was racially insensitive.
The plate reads: DYNGR.
Tiffany Gilmore filed the complaint last month. Gilmore, who is black, believed the plate encouraged racism toward blacks.
Macaulay says the plate, which was renewed every year without objection is an ode to his love of the Harley Davidson brand of motorcycles.
He says it's an abbreviation that blends his two favorite Harleys: The Dyna Wide Glide and the Soft Tail Springer. Over the seven years he had the plate, Macaulay said he never received objections from anyone.
His brother-in-law thought it was an abbreviation for "danger." But, he said, no one ever thought it was racially motivated.
Until last month.
After he received the complaint letter, Macaulay said it took him several minutes to figure out what the fuss was about.
"I don't think that way," he said. "It took me a while to figure it out."
"This lady assumed immediately that I was a racist skinhead," Macaulay said. "There are so many other things going on, like the war. People have nothing better to do than spend their lives being pissed off."
Macaulay said he has applied for a new personalized license plate similar to the one that has been recalled. But it lacks the letter "N" so nobody gets confused.
"I would like to apologize to this lady for offending her, but that was not my intention," he said. "People who know me know that I'm not a racist. But she didn't really know what the plate meant."
ESAD
probably something like DYKRKA.
I wish I would have kept the picture, the # could have been N1663R but when I saw the picture I could see what they were talking about. My brother in law is a helicopter pilot for the LASD and took a picture of the plane at an airport in LA.
I’ve just decided that if I ever have the occasion to get personalized plates for two cars, the second one’s going to be “NAGGERS”.
I think it means he is #2, probably after his wife.
Long ago, at a job in high school, we were laughing about someone being HMFIC, and a black guy chimed in and said that the HMFIC's boss was the HNCIC.
CIC was "Completely In Charge". I'll let you fill in the rest.
Which database did you use? The official FAA registry says it is invalid.
However, I did find it at airframes.org for a Grumman AA-1B, albeit without an address.
Sorry I’ve been away from the computer all afternoon, but the database I use is Landings.com and it did show a Grumman AA-1B registered as N1553R, although I have sometimes found them to be inaccurate or out of date. I’m surprised there are not more “double entendre” registrations since an owner can evidently get almost any combination of letters and numbers up to 5 after the initial compulsory N.
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