Volume 5, Issue 1: Spring 2009

History Changes You

Darilynn (Dee) McClure  

“We need to create the changes that we desire before undesirable changes are created for us.”--Jenifer Edgett, May 3, 2006 (used with permission)  

This sums up the whole Motorcycle Rights movement for me and hopefully for the many who are involved across this great nation of ours.  It is both a goal and a dream to create a world that is better for all, including our future generations.  Another friend and member of the Texas Motorcycle Rights Association, Del “Dakota” Raney, once told me that the difference between a dream and a goal was that the dream was a vision that we hoped for, but a goal was a dream with a plan and a time line.  I have had a dream and goal on many levels without definitive knowledge of it.

My dream began with my love of motorcycles years ago and I was involved with the clubs as well as independent riders in Texas and across the South. I have partied and rode on the back of motorcycles for 30 plus years.  I had the experience of both the good and bad of the club world–the camaraderie of the brotherhood and sisterhood plus the violence of turf wars.  But it was when I met Joseph Scheiern “Preacher Joe,” who later became my husband, that I got a real grasp on the reality of the impact of the helmet law and how it and other such laws would affect my life.  He was looking for a better way to change things other than going to the Capitol in Austin and shouting “Helmet laws suck!” at a time on the weekend when there was no one in the building except a few tourists and only a few media people hanging around outside.  Sure, it made some of the news, but it wasn’t affecting any changes.  Along with this desire to affect changes, I knew I had to leave the drugs behind, once and for all, so that I could stand and speak for my People and our way of life.

In 1988 we joined Texas ABATE Confederation in an attempt to learn more about our rights and the legislative process.  By 1992, we were actively involved in ABATE using the bar that I worked at for meetings of the Houston chapter which numbered about 120 members at the time and I was the Secretary.  Then, my husband, Preacher Joe, was killed in an automobile/motorcycle accident in front of that same bar one May night and it set in motion a whole new Path for me.

Disillusioned by ABATE not directing its membership towards education, but more towards charity, I needed to seek some other avenue for my own hunger to affect the changes needed to produce the goals of riding with the Liberty and Freedoms that we were promised in the United States Constitution.  I firmly believe that all People should have the Right to Freedom of Choice for themselves across the board.  I believe that if provided with truthful education in various matters, most People would make the right choice for themselves without government interference. 

It was at that point that I heard Sputnik speak to our group and some of us formed the Gulf Coast Motorcycle Rights Association also known as GCMRA, which became the springboard for me to be the legislative liaison between the Texas Motorcycle Rights Association and Gulf Coast Motorcycle Rights Association.  This sealed my fate and my Path for the future.  Eventually, Gulf Coast Motorcycle Rights Association disbanded and I became fully involved with the Texas Motorcycle Rights Association.  The Texas Motorcycle Rights Association fights for our Liberty. The Rights and Freedoms of the People became a main focus in my life and helped me maintain my sanity in light of my loss of Preacher Joe and all the challenges of being a single mom with a teenage son to raise.  I was also going to college full time to become a legal assistant and working full time, be it as a cashier, bartender or machine operator.  It also created a basis where I could not only communicate more effectively with my son but his friends, too, as I showed them how to petition the school board for less stringent dress code changes than the board had originally proposed.  They collected over 800 signatures of people who could vote but the board had already made up its mind before their presentation at the meeting. Valuable lessons were learned by all.  I made it a requirement to be registered to vote if you were old enough and planned to hang around my house.  I even stepped up to being first an election worker then an election judge.  I worked the polls using my son and his friends to help me set up and tear down the voting place, thus involving all of us in the political process further.  My son and I still discuss various issues and political races before voting.

I spoke to everyone I could about what I was learning from Sputnik, BJ Waugh, Dale Slaughter and my dear friend, our Secretary, Cyndi Calhoun, the main driving forces of the Association at the time.  Soon there was enough interest to form a Houston chapter of Texas Motorcycle Rights Association.  As this chapter grew with members, some even coming in from Galveston to meetings, we saw the need for a Galveston chapter and it was formed.  I lived in Brazoria County the entire time, so I assisted from a distance but participated wholeheartedly by attending all of their meetings and soon found myself in the position of District Advisor for my senate district.  Texas Motorcycle Rights Association, to explain, is set up with a Chairman, Secretary/Treasurer and a board of district advisors, which represent our state senatorial districts and are elected by the current members of their district.  All the current members worldwide elect the Chairman, and the Chairman, with approval of the district advisors, appoints the Secretary/Treasurer and a Vice Chairman, if needed.  Members can come together to form chapters if they want to with help and guidance from their district advisor or the Chairman.  We do not do charity except to help one of our own members and our main focus is on educating People about the political and legislative processes.

Through the learning process with Texas Motorcycle Rights Association, I was able to experience the political party procedure by exercising what seemed too easy to be true, but it did actually work that easily.   They said that all I had to do was go to the precinct meeting after the primary polls closed and ask to be the precinct chair.  I went into the precinct meeting and there was only one guy in there so I told him what I wanted.  He had me fill out the paperwork and left saying his dinner was waiting on him.  I came out not only as a precinct chair but a delegate to my first state convention as well in 1994.  Since then I have been a delegate at the state Democratic Convention every time.  I have taken part in one of the largest caucuses at the Democratic Convention: the Motorcycle Rights caucus.  I have learned to write resolutions that help form the party’s platforms and get them passed at both the local and state levels.

I took the decline and eventual demise of both the Houston and Galveston chapters personally to a degree, but I didn’t let it deter me from starting a chapter in Brazoria County where I lived.  I also served as their Secretary/Treasurer and District Advisor until 2002.  It has continued to prosper on its own.  I took a brief hiatus while starting a new job and making the move to San Marcos, Texas, but continued to attend meetings at the state office in Austin through 2003 and remained active until Sputnik suggested once again I take the position of district advisor in my new district when the current district advisor stepped down.

My involvement in the new area proved challenging since I was not familiar with the area or the people.  I no longer worked or hung out in the bars, which is where I met many potential members and riders through runs, rallies, toy runs and benefits.  It has been stimulating, even inspirational, to have had the chance to utilize so many of my skills and experience in order to form another chapter, the Gruene Chapter.  While we were young and still working on growing, it was akin to nurturing a young child into adulthood, and one of the best experiences by far.  The Gruene Chapter has since folded due to lack of interest by chapter members to continue as a chapter in that area, although most of them have retained their memberships and some, such as myself, attend the Austin Minutemen Chapter meetings.  As my life became simpler and my responsibilities lessened, I was able to give more time and energy to what had become my passion and the main focus of my life and it continues to be even to this day.

I have realized the need to preserve Liberty for the future of all our generations.  Personal satisfaction and gratification are not as important as it will come when we are all liberated and free to choose for ourselves.  Being a member of this vital association and helping to educate People on the political and legislative processes, which impact their very lives on a daily basis, is the ultimate life high.  I feel that each of us has a duty to do our part to make this a better world for all and working within this organization teaches you how to do that.  A quote, which fits appropriately here, and I don’t know who the author of it is, is that “Dissent is your right as a citizen and your duty as a patriot.”

We learn and teach how to affect the necessary changes to put good legislators into office and work to remove legislators who don’t have the wellbeing of their constituents in mind; as well as how to get good legislation passed into law or prevent bad legislation from becoming law.  Our legislative system works if we use it properly and equally for all.  We come together with others on the local, state and national level at conventions and conferences to share what works and what doesn’t.  I currently attend at least two to three of these per year, especially the Mid-South MILE, which is Motorcyclists Improving Legislative Effectiveness, comprised of the Motorcycle Rights Organizations from five states (Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas), and the National Coalition Of Motorcyclists Convention.  These exchanges of information, ideas and solutions have served to fuel a fire in me to continue working with Texas Motorcycle Rights Association, Texas ABATE Confederation, Motorcycle Riders Foundation, Aid to Injured Motorcyclists/National Coalition of Motorcyclists, Confederation of Clubs and others across this great nation to protect our Liberty, Rights and Freedoms on a full time basis.

As I said in the beginning, the dream and the goal are in my heart and I guess they always have been; now I must proceed along the time line towards the goal’s end.  With the ending of the job with a law firm in San Marcos in 2005, I saw the opportunity to have some freedom and flexibility to travel across Texas and the country with Sputnik, our Chairman, and to learn first hand from this great educator.  I then worked in the trenches learning even more by attending and being active in our legislative session with some of our other members such as Jenifer Edgett, whose quote opened this paper, and Dana Young and Jerry Rose, who have become district advisors at my urging.  I learned how to write bills and work them into laws, which amend our state constitution.  I also co-host our TV show on public access TV with Sputnik, where we discuss Texas politics on a weekly basis.  The show is called Texas Politics – Biker Style and our Secretary/Treasurer, Terri Williams is our producer.  I am growing into my own so that I can run for the position of state chairman of Texas Motorcycle Rights Association when Sputnik steps down, as he has said he will do soon.  I did run for the position in 2007 and although I did not win the election, it did not squelch my desire to try again in two years when Sputnik steps down.   In the interim I have been appointed Vice Chairman and approved by the district advisors.  I will use the time between now and the election in 2009 to learn more and assist Sputnik and the association in furthering the education of all the members and People who are interested in the processes. I am confident that it won’t be the end for Sputnik or me but simply another change for all of us as we work together towards a better world for all future generations.  We will fight, spilling our blood and guts if necessary, educate the People about the truths and continue to create the changes that we desire before others create undesirable changes for us.  It is said.

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