Mass House Bill 646-lifejackets mandatory-EMAIL your Rep NOW

[isobars]

With that breathing room, let me add how NM windsurfers defeated very similar legislation long ago, in case it helps if this gains momentum. Their successful points and methods included:
• Wet suits offer plenty of buoyancy.
• The sea anchor effect of the sail.
• Nobody's drowned yet. Just what problem are we trying to spend more money to solve?
• We carried a very short board into the hearing under one arm and ridiculed the idea of having to license it.
• We pointed out that many WSers buy and sell several boards each year.
(NM's legislation required a 3-year license for each board).

Mike \m/

[windswell]

Both my state rep and state senator said the bill is going nowhere, and does not have wide support. Thanks to those of you that wrote your reps. Even if this bill had no merit, the fact that we respond as a group makes a difference, as it puts them on notice that we're organized. Ain't democracy grand???

[isobars]

You'd better believe complaining can help. Utah tried to ban daylight savings time. Even confined to bed with a broken back before the internet existed, I stirred up the biggest $#!+storm in Utah history of angry phone calls to the in-session legislature. That idea never came up again while I still lived there.

The TRULY ridiculous part? The rationale of the legislator who introduced that bill was that cows would give less milk on DST. Her single, lonely brain cell was bought and paid for by the dairy industry.