Swamp Cabbage Festival 2010 – The Real Truth about the Bike Event

For those of you who don’t want to hear me rant, move on because that’s what this post is going to turn into.

I’ll start by saying that while I consider myself a biker, I’m not hard-core. I love riding my Heritage…and I do it at every turn. But I also work (more than just a few jobs) and I volunteer a LOT at the American Legion. It is with the American Legion Riders that I found the mixture of patriotism, volunteerism and riding that makes me very happy and I’m honored to be the Director of Chapter 130 for the 2009-2010 season.

====BEING ANGRY RANT====
Now…the rest of this is going to be harsh, but I’m sick and tired of holding it in and it has to be said..more than once…and directly to the whiney little bitch (hereinafter referred to as the WLB) who’s going so far out of her way to try and make it all about her.

The past 3 years at Swamp Cabbage Festival (SCF) there’s been a bike event hosted first by Full Throttle, then by GoFAR magazines; the rags got involved because of one of their ‘affiliates’ (the aforementioned WLB). This year, as before, the SCF Committee went to her to do the bike event. After all, it’s been successful and has drawn lots of bike traffic to our city and the festival. All good, right?

Well, one would think so, but of course there’s a twist. Here it is. The SCF Committee let her know that, for reasons which really don’t matter here, the entire event was being shifted from Main Street (where there are churches, houses, the library where the bike stuff used to go on) to Lee Street, two blocks east.

Mind you, this is the entire event being shifted, not just the ‘bikes’. All foot traffic is going to be going up Lee Street which makes this an ideal location. But all that mattered to ‘her’ was that she was being moved. She didn’t wait around to hear the details, just started ranting by email, phone and other means – telling people that just because it wasn’t ‘her’ event, it wasn’t happening.

Ok, I’m ok with sour grapes from small minds. I get that she’s all about her self-promotion and as a capitalist I support that. But if you’re FROM LA BELLE, don’t TRASH LA BELLE. DON’T TRY TO SABOTAGE THROUGH LIES AND DECEPTION. BE UP FRONT. YOU TOOK A PASS AND WE MOVED ON. YOU SHOULD TOO.

This WLB needs to hear one thing, if nothing else, from this post – I’m borrowing this phrase from a friend who made this statement at the SCF Committee – which, btw, the WLB hasn’t attended since she started stomping her feet and whining in high gear: The City of LaBelle and the SCF Committee has NOTHING TO APOLOGIZE FOR. The City has, as they always do, conducted themselves above board and in the best interest of the City and the citizens. Their agenda is not about you, WLB, only yours is. Calling what you used to do at SCF the KwK SCF Bike Event is just self aggrandizement. Pure and simple. You’re not about LaBelle, you’re about you. The American Legion Riders are about LaBelle, our Veterans and their families. That’s what we do. When we’re a part of SCF, as we have been since the first year we were in existence, it’s not for any other reason than our desire to foster 100% Americanism and freedom. We stand for your right to be a WLB, even though I, for one, hate the sound of your whines.

There are those of us who ride who will NEVER participate in another event with which you’re associated. That’s our personal display of distaste for you and your self righteous bullshit. The difference between the way you do things, with lies and deceit, and the way I do things is pretty straight forward. I won’t tell people to stay away from your events. You’re entitled to do what you want. I won’t lie and say you’re not doing an event. I won’t go out of my way to defer traffic from your events. I speak for me..and I do it honestly. My ‘dollars’ vote anywhere you’re not. It’s that simple.
====END ANGRY RANT====

Thanks for reading so far…please don’t stop just because I’ve stopped ranting

Now here’s the truth about the 44th Annual Swamp Cabbage Festival and Bike Event. When the WLB took a pass, some professionals stepped up. I was skeptical when a Ft. Myers company, Events x D’Zign, stepped in and offered to promote the event. After all, it’s a LaBelle event and ‘who are these guys’, right? Well, wrong, actually. As it turns out, they’re all about keeping the SCF a LaBelle event. They turned to the American Legion Riders and we to them and we’re working (get this, WLB – something you don’t really understand) TOGETHER to make the Event (not either of our organizations, but the event) a really great thing for LaBelle. Thanks to Events x D’Zign, the Latin American Motorcycle Association (LAMA), are doing the bike show…this is going to be fantastic event.

On March 1, when the dust settles, the City, the ALR and the bikers in our community will see what cooperative efforts and selflessness can do. Viva SCF and the Bike Event therein. Thank you SCF Committee, City of LaBelle and all who help to make this about *all of us*, because after all, it is.

-Bouncer