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RE: [RC] who are we to" align" with? - David LeBlanc-----Original Message----- From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Cindy Collins Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 7:47 AM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] who are we to" align" with? As I said in my first post, we'd probably do well to form alliances with as many environmental groups as possible. We've got more in common with those groups than there are differences. Don't mean to start a war, but many of us disagree totally with you on this point. We have much more in common with other multiple users. If we don't align with other multiple users, we will eventually be banned from all forest trails. I know many do not want to believe this, but it is true. When I lived in CA I sat in meetings with "environmental" groups that said straight out that as soon they got rid of motorized access, horses were next. You can chose to think that you have more in common with the environmental groups, but I truly believe we will all suffer the consequences for your naivete. Cindy One thing I'm not naïve about is politics. I grew up around Florida politics and have seen it from a lot of different aspects. One of the reasons we see these kind of attitudes is precisely because we're not involved. We're those faceless horse people. If we get to know one another and find common ground, we're more likely to be able to work together. We do have a lot of common ground - I don't know about you, but I don't care to ride through clear-cut. If forests aren't preserved, it won't matter much whether there are trails or not. I also look at it in terms of what motivates people - politics does indeed sometimes make strange bedfellows. If the environmental organizations need support, they'll many times make compromises to get that support. If that means allowing horses, and they value our support, we might get that. One of the problems here is that we're not well organized enough. As far as I know, we don't do much, if any, lobbying. We don't have people watching the legislature to see what might adversely affect us. That's the reality of politics - if you want to get things done, you get involved. You also don't ignore those opposed to you - you talk with them. At best you can turn them into an ally. At worst, you can find out their arguments and think about how to defeat them. If we're losing out on trails, then there's a reason for that - the most likely reason is that we're not playing politics well enough. If these groups see us as a problem, there's a reason for that, too - could be only they don't understand our issues or perspectives. Either way, building bridges generally helps - both figuratively and literally. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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