Weird Two Wheel News

When I first read this headline, "Patriot bikers to protect Maya Angelou's funeral from Westboro Baptist protest," I was almost impressed. There are things to like about the "2 Million Bikers to DC," but their undying loyalty to war and warriors puts me off. Of course, there is nothing to like about the Topeka, Kansas Westboro Babtist Church, so everything in perspective the 2MBDC characters have managed to find a crowd in which they look good; sort of like a skinny girl with zits hanging out with a really fat girl with zits, a boil on her neck, and giant braces. (Or a pair of boys with the same qualities, depending on your own perspective.) For a few, brief moments, I hoped the biker gangsters were actually doing something cool. And they were, sort of.

However, to keep from being seen as being open-minded, intellectual, and/or less-than-war-mongering, the 2MBDC bunch made up for their moment of hipness by putting as much distance as possible between themselves and Maya Angelou. The 2MBDC spokeswoman wrote in the group's Facebook page, "[2 Million Bikers] are not riding in support of Angelou's beliefs. We are riding to protect her funeral from WBC. If we allow WBC to protest her funeral what will stop them from protesting one of our funerals?"

She went on to say, "No we do not agree with her beliefs, but we agree with her freedom to have & voice those beliefs. That is what freedom is about! If we attempt to shut up all those who disagree with us are we not doing the same thing as them?""

So, I'm left with ambivalence regarding 2MBDC. Maya Angelou's beliefs were well-founded, even-better-documented, rational, peaceful, honorable, and beautiful. If that's what this pack of noisy gangbangers on Harley's are distancing themselves from, my stereotypes remain intact.