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Cycle News 1976 11 23

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Free Wheeling f rom page 8 I'd heard of this sort of thing in other countries - it 's a recurrent them e in junior college Comparat ive Government courses. You know , the scenario in whic h th e members of a single poli tical organization form a "shadow" government to further their ideology as if no su bversion had taken pla ce . Notsinc e the bad 01' days of th e McCa rt hy Er a had such an id ea been taken seriously in th is co u ntry. When th e vot ers of Ca lifornia , in their infinite wisdom , replaced a bad actor with a good kid in the Govern or's ch a ir , and that good kid pledged to pu t e n vi r o n m e n t a li sts in the government , a lot of us old cynics prep ared ourselves for the worst. When th e Department of Parks and Recrea ti on , which administers the OHV Fu nd, became top -heavy with them, we swallowed ha rd , b ut to ok it philosophica lly. Aft er all , what could they do to us? They were bound by th e sa m e laws as other men. T hey could delay , obstruct, and confuse issues; but we'd just have to stay on th eir cases and make sure th ey carried out th e law . .. . . . a shado w gove rn me nt to f u rther th eir ideo logy as if no su bve rsion had tak en place. .. Little did we kno w th ey'd become brave eno ug h to use time -hono re d defense contract acco u n ting tr icks to gut the fund so they wouldn't have to spend it bu ying ORV parks. Prett y cute, huh? T heir excuses a re even cuter. Like the $1.5 milli on in Bond Funds th a t neve r got spe nt. "O t her projects had higher p riorities than HV facili ties". And who set the pri ori ties? O r more to t he po int , what ideo logy guided th em in setting priorities? What would motivate a management to consistantly charge phony overhead to the OHV Fund , then when ca ugh t , say " Oh , we d idn't ' know that was wro ng. " ? Why would the Deputy Director, in an internal memo , admit " there is scant in terest in . OHVs within th e Dep artment" , th en ca ut ion ag ain st pub li ci zing th e memo's contents for fear it would make the Department look bad? cH ow deep does the infiltration go , I wonder? These things t11ke time. It sta r ts at th e to p , with political appointees. T hen uncooperative second-level management is allowed to transfer , retire , or resign in a huff. OHV departments are eliminated . Then j n a couple ye.a rs of normal attrition , carefully:selecte d ne w-hires begin to trickle down into th e ran k and file . Pretty soon, whole working grou ps become "secu re" , speaking one language to th e ou tside world and a ' famil y language wit hin. 'If onl y it had been a simple case of la rc en y, qui ckl y pun ished of pa rdoned , qui ckly forgotten . But no , tnis is new . This is different. This is big. ow th e witch hunt begins. Now th e questions st a rt gett ing asked in ea rnes t. How many members of the State Park Commission a re cardcarryi ng Sierra Clubbers ? Five out of eigh t? Or all eight? How about the Director? The deputy Director? H ow many staff department heads? the ugl y spectre of_W ill McCarthyism surface once again? Will som e zealous committee of the California legisla tu re begin calling people in, starting with the point of , t he organizational pyr arnid-. and , working down ward , to pop the question , "Are you now , or have you ever been a member of the Sierra Club?" And if they do , would we be the kind of yellow-rag, muckraking journalists that would print the resul ts? You bet we would . • can-am H @OAKA HONDA Honda of Glend ora 1 , 3· 4 25¢~~ is what It cost s pe r letter to p u t yo u r n am e or ri ding nu mber on y our fav orite jersey. swea tshirt, or T-sh irt wh ile yo u wai t . Phone (213) 534-2311 T~" 'lAMAWAf 2 4 02 0 Narbonne A ve. , LQlrIlta, CA 9 0 7 J 7 r F R'E E 1978 ~2 MX CATALO Whypay list pr ice for hard·to-fl name brand MX items ? Tr y us. Cycle Products WEST WORKS Per for mance ong/ Run Phase 2 sa w SUN GRAHAM .T. Alloy BASSET T BankAmericard T ERRYCABL T HOR Enterpris es Mark Charle J T Raci ng Universa l HI -POINT ' Wlseco Pr o-Tee Moto-X Fox master charge T F Racino Enter pr ises P.O.Box 2 15 Av(;rYJ,..Ca. 95224 209 7 95- 2~ 81 SAMM Y T A N N Ef{ D ISTR IBUTING lUIII-TECH 2139242 111 Mike Patric k 's •

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