Willful Ignorance Here at Off-Road.com, we are proud...let me say that again "Proud" to be associated with the fine folks at The Blue Ribbon Coalition. I never thought I would have to say it - I thought it was self evident considering our multiple links, regular articles, and various side projects between our two groups. But alas......it seems that some people like to hold it over our heads as if it were something we should be "ashamed" of....As if we were allying ourselves with white supremacists, Islamic terrorists, or the minions of Farrakhan. "My God! They are a "Wise Use" Group!!!" To borrow a phrase from my daughter......"Well DUH!" (Side note - I'd try to be more adult about this situation, but I think such level of intellect would far outstrip that of the accusers in question) Likewise, BRC finds itself in an identical situation, where as ORC is "the bad guy" and it's somehow "hurting their credibility" aligning themselves with us. Case in point -...... Blue Ribbon Magazine has periodically run some of my columns / writings on the subject of land use (or lack thereof) and Eco-terrorism. Below is listed a response they received. Rather than address this privately, I'll do it here and hopefully clear up any willful ignorance on the part of our collective naysayers. So with out further adieu (a-doo?)..... Dear BRC: Dear Steve, As you (figuratively speaking)look throughout newspapers, hear radio broadcasts, and watch the nightly news, you are barraged with "unsubstantiated rhetoric" in news reports that quote "unnamed sources close to...", various "cabinet officials", "aides to the..." and so on. Many of these are taken by the average person as Gospel fact, whether or not they happen to be true. You have a legitimate gripe, and one I'll never deny. The problem comes from a basic fact of publishing. Not all articles are / will / can be cross referenced. The majority of the population simply doesn't read it. Why is that? Unfortunately, many of these people choose to remain willfully ignorant. Instead of taking the time to look into any statements made by myself or any of my contemporaries in the media, they jump to 1 of 2 conclusions 1. - It's total BS / Can't happen here / You're on Crack etc. 2. - Accept it on blind faith alone. Perhaps what these people should be doing is spending a little time looking into these matters for themselves, and getting their answers based on what they find. We have become a literately lazy society, one that has millions of terabytes of data available at the touch of a keyboard, yet too apathetic to take some initiative and learn things for ourselves. Were we to seek truth of our own accord, rather than having our "beliefs", "facts", and "reality" spoon fed to us via some talking head on the latest propaganda broadcast, we'd truly be amazed at what we'd find. Now that I've probably alienated about everybody ;-), I'll put my money where my mouth is. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of land use issues and the motorcycle industry has heard of Rick Sieman. Rick is the creator of Dirt Bike Magazine - a publication that single handedly created the "dirt bike craze" in the early 70's. A "craze" I may add, that continues to this day. Rick is also known as "El Presedante" of the Sahara Club, hands down the most "radical" pro land use group the world has ever seen. He's loved by millions (quite literally) of off-roaders because he had the huevos (read that "balls") to stand up and take the Sierra Club and the BLM to task over a little chunk of land in the Mojave Desert called "the "Barstow to Vegas" race course. It cost him several hundred thousand dollars of his own personal money, nearly cost him his house, and damn near cost him his marriage. But despite a literal army of government funded lawyers, and the amassed might of the BLM, USFS, and other alphabet soup agencies...along with Earth First! and the Sierra Club, Rick walked out of federal court with a written court order guaranteeing us the right to ride to this very day. That said, it is not so well known that Rick Sieman is a "Pariah" in the landuse world. Because of his radical "in your face" approach to combating government / Eco land grabs, it's not "PC" to be associated too closely with him. Personally we at ORC don't rightly go for that thar "PC" stuff, and embrace him warmly. (not that we're....oh, nevermind) In our long and mutually beneficial relationship with Rick, we've become privy to quite literally all the behind the scenes bull$h!t that has, and continues to go on between the govt., the Sierra Club, EF! and other Eco-terrorist groups. We have seen it with out own eyes, and heard it with our own ears. The links between SC and EF! are many. Some are blatantly obvious, (like EF! founder Dave Foreman now being a seated board member of the Sierra Club), some are as clandestine as the verbiage found within a fictional Tom Clancy novel (read Rainbow 6 btw, highly recommended). The proof (or I should say "one of" the proofs you seek is widely available from Rick himself. In the early 90's, Rick set out to document the funding going on between EF! and Sierra. He set up a sting operation whereas he posed as an EF!'er looking to obtain "funding" for a clearly illegal action involving postal fraud, misuse of company property materials, and indeed wire fraud. Rick taped the phone conversations between himself and a California Sierra Club employee (a tape available from him directly for I believe the cost of shipping and handling). The result was that the Sierra Club sent a not insubstantial amount of cash to him, fully believing him to be an EF!'er using this money in an illegal act. To obtain copies of this tape, you can contact Rick directly at I personally own a copy of that tape, and have listened to it many times. It is from here, and many other sources that I make the statement of fact that EF! is funded, in part, by the Sierra Club. I have now asserted the positive, backed up my statement with documented proof (available to you and all), and provided you the information necessary for you to obtain this proof for your own perusal. Mr. Bonowski, I challenge you to view the evidence and draw your own conclusions. Norm Lenhart
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