Open letter........
Re: The future onwership of mil-vehs, HR 4205, et al
Hi David,
Your letter was very thorough and well written. It provided us with a lot of
good information. Thank you for your efforts! But, your letter also raised
as many questions as it answeredm, albeit no fault of yours. You just
reported the facts as they were given. For the sake of brevity, I can't
address all my concerns now, but here are a few observations and conclusion I
wanted to share with you and the group:
1. A true lobbyist is as you say, registered and all interests represented
are a matter of public record. The field of reasons why a lobbyist would not
want our name freely associated with his activities is rather narrow. I am
of the opinion there is some trepidation on his part, that such an
association may do more harm than good. If that is true, that smacks of some
misgivings about us. A disingenuous, if not misinformed relationship at the
very least. Not a good place to start a new relationship is it? If this is
the case (I am hoping it's not).
2. Mr. Holland does not want individuals writing protest letters for fear of
being portrayed as too militant and alienating possibly support. Where is
the factual basis for this belief? On the pro side of writing letters, the
NRA and gun owners have been doing this successfully for decades, so have so
many other organizations. Are we to assume now that letters written to
elected representatives is counter productive because of the chance of some
radical commentary by a few over the issue of military vehicles?
What prevents the radical/crackpot from writing in anyway, whether or not we
engage in a letter writing campaign? Better to have a mass of good letters
flooding their offices and putting the crack pot letters in perspective,
don't you think? The power of the pen is fundamental to our success and it's
as American as our vote. I would encourage, rather than discourage people
write in on our behalf.
3. It is a fact this chat area is not an official MVPA sponsored chat site
and Mr. Holland is under no obligation whatsoever to directly communicate
with members here.
However, this chat is perhaps the singularly best tool the MVPA has, official
or not, for instantly reaching many members free of charge. I would think a
leader would jump at the chance to inform and build a constituency, whenever
and wherever he can.
It seems hair splitting, if this "officialdom" was the only reason and I
suspect it is not. Afterall, our user guidelines here would make this as
close to an official MVPA site as you can get without official recognition.
Therefore, I would encourage Mr. Holland or whoever the future leaders of the
MVPA may be, to consider using this forum or any forum to their advantage
whenever they feel the need. This is an excellent way to do an outreach, to
increase awareness and knowledge. The more direct information we have from
the top, both as members and as nonmembers, the better we can resolve
conflict and promote this hobby for the good of all concerned. Whether we
are an MVPA member or just a mil-veh enthusiast... we all share the same life
boat.
In closing, this is for Lee Holland: I recognize your sincere efforts and
despite whatever minor difference of opinion we may have, I wanted to let you
know that. You've made a tremendous sacrifice in time and effort on our
behalf and it's most appreciated.
Keep em rollin.......
Most respectfully,
Jack Lee
c.c. LH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Sep 02 2000 - 09:32:34 PDT