THE MC BROTHERHOOD DEFINED

I didn’t get to choose the family God gave me but I have all the power in the world in choosing my friends and most especially my MC.  Recently I found myself in heated conversations that have questioned “why do you take the MC so seriously?” Please understand  that while I don’t have  issue with being asked that question I do get annoyed at people who after asking that question don’t like the answer I give them. I suspect  their problem with my answer highlights why they themselves aren’t MC material and why while I may speak to them, I would never consider them a brother when it comes to the motorcycle community. 

Before the right people take it the wrong way, it’s not a slight against independent riders. I was independent for years and I know independent riders out there that many clubs would salivate at the opportunity to patch in. Additionally this blog means absolutely nothing to a club or club member who doesn’t  subscribe to the traditional protocols that I so strongly believe in. If you’re an MMC (Mickey Mouse Club is a social club of people who may or may not own motorcycles and decide their cuts are fashion statements instead of life statements) or worse, you’re a Sucka MC (a MMC who actually thinks they’re a real MC) then this isnt’ for you because the basic principles and the conviction to which I’m about to pontificate will be lost on you.

It’s not all the time I do this but I will make an ass of myself by assuming if you take the opportunity to prospect for an MC that motorcyling is no longer a hobby for you and you’re electing to make it a life. Notice I didn’t say lifestyle, I said life. Lifestyle indicates it’s something you “do” but life is very clearly something you “are.” Please understand the transparent distinction between the two. If you elect to prospect for a club, riding your motorcycle is only one aspect of a life that you’re saying is something you want to be part of and represent. It’s obviously an important decision.

In fact,  it’s as important as the decision in terms of where you’re going to work or who you’re going to marry. Prospecting is something that is formally recognzied in the MC community but in being hired for a new job, it’s informally stated as the probation period. A potential employer evaluates if you’re going to live up to the exaggerations on your resume and become a valuable resource in their company.   While you’re on this probationary period, it would also behoove you to see if this is truly the company where you want to work and all those exagerations the HR person told you about this being a great place to work is actually true or a complete load of crap.

The weight of the decision made in the job market is equal to the weight made  in the MC community when choosing to prospect for a club.Remember all clubs are different but as a biker, I’m not. I know what I want in a club and that club must meet my standards and criteria as much as I need to meet theirs. So once you’ve decided to prospect take that time during the prospecting period to see how club members behave, how they engage socially and most especially on the road, do they ride enough to your liking and how they respect or don’t respect each other. Nothing is more telling then how current and long standing members treat each other because that ultimately says whether or not there is a true and sincere brotherhood within that club. And remember that brotherhood ultimately, more than the motorcycles, is what keeps a club united and strong. If the brotherhood is as strong as the single strand of a thong between a big girls ass, then your club is in serious trouble.

A club is supposed to be a brotherhood  that comes from a bond of the love of motorcycles. The presumption is if you all own motorcycles (a big if in this age of Sucka MC’s) and actually ride those motorcycles (another big if) then you must have enough commonalities that unite the members to consider a bond that brings you all together in a club. Before I go on, people then should clearly understand why having a club where you have serious bikers and leisure bikers fragments that brotherhood. Serious bikers like myself will always look down on those people who don’t ride to bike events, who put their bikes away in the cold or find every excuse to be in a cage as opposed to on a bike. You can be the most decent human being in the world but I didn’t join an MC to be surrounded by the most decent human beings. I join a motorcycle club to be surrounded by some bike loving mutha fucka’s and anything less then that is not acceptable for a biker like me.

 “I believe in the brotherhood of all men, but I don't believe in wasting brotherhood on anyone who doesn't want to practice it with me. Brotherhood is a two-way street.” Malcolm X

Please re-read the last line of the paragraph above along with the quote by Malcolm X. If you don’t practice (if you don’t ride your bike) then you’re NOT my brother. So how can you have a club with serious bikers and leisure bikers (Ghost Riders)? I believe in segregation of these classes of bikers because by putting them together under one patch, you’re fragmenting your club and growing dissention in the group on both sides.

Secondly, brotherhood means I can count on you knowing, understanding and accepting that we’ll both be calling on each other so much that we won’t be keeping count. There’s no option in not helping out your brother should he call in the middle of the night, or early in the morning. You will support him not out of obligation, but because in a true brotherhood you do it without question because you expect that of yourself.

Again, please re-read that. You support your brother because you expect that of yourself.

Years ago I belonged to a MMC (Mickey Mouse Club) where individually the members were good people but collectively as an MC we were a joke. I won’t belabor the point here but if you’ve read my other blogs you’ve come across many of my issues with the previous group. But one night in particular sticks out to me where one of the members in that group showed me just how much of a brother he was to me.

Reading in between the lines here, I found myself having a very unpleasant exchange with the authorities and one thing led to another and I was detained. At 4am I called the VP of this club and within thirty minutes he was at the police station bailing me out. I asked him to keep that between us and three years later he still hasn’t said a word about it. Not only was that man there for me that time without quesiton, but he’s remained my brother despite me having dropped my colors and made it quite vocal in terms of how I feel about that club. Clearly the reason why the friendship became a brotherhood is because we both respected each other as bikers and we both respected each other as men within and beyond the entanglement of the colors we once shared. I can’t speak for him but my respect for him started with how he first presented himself to me as the VP of the club (to the point, welcoming but not overly friendly, cautious, serious and fair) and how he rode. A sport bike rider who “got it in”  but rode with more then just a little bit of sense and he cared and still cares deeply about the organization he agreed to rerpresent when he joined their ranks. He earned my respect and to this day, he and I are brothers.

When you take your place and responsibility in your MC lightly then the MC will in turn take your membership and their responsibility to you lightly. Can you count on anyone wihtin your MC to bail you out of jail at 3am and keep that between yourselves? If you needed a place to stay ‘cause your Old Lady read your text messages, is there anyone in your MC that would allow you their couch regardless of what their annoying Old Lady is chirping about in their head? If your bike breaks down, will anyone on your MC pull off on the side of the road with you and stay there no matter what or will they decide that making it home in time to watch the fight is more important?

I don’t know about you but I compromise enough in my marriage and at work that my MC is one place where I don’t see any reason to make compromises. It’s very simple. Either you’re an MC or you’re not. Either you’re going to follow protocol or you’re not and if you’re not, then it’s up to me to decide whether or not you’re the MC for me.

Which brings us back full circle…

Your MC is an important decision because if they truly are your brothers then because you have a shared DNA of riding and bikes, certain things shouldn’t ever come up. “Are you riding to a bike event or trailing your bike?” or “It’s 40 degrees outside, are you going in a car or riding?”. If you have that common DNA that subscribes to biker codes( that I’m not going to go into here because if you’re truly a biker then you know what they are and if you’re a biker in a real MC, then collectively you all should know what they are). I don’t have to explain to my wife why our children having a great educaiton is important and if I did, then something would really be wrong with my choice of her as a wife. In the same breath, if I have to explain to a person in a bike club why it’s important to show up to an event on your motorcycle and not a car is important, then there’s a serious problem there.

I shouldn’t have to explain to my brother how to be my brother or why I consider him my brother in the first place and if I do, are you my brother? Nothing is perfect, not marriage, not life and certainly not an MC but I can say this without question. I am not joining an MC to get away from “my life”. I have a sexy wife whose smile lights up the night and three beautiful kids who make my life worth living. I have no need to “get away” from them. Any MC I consider is not my sabbatical from a life that I don’t need a sabbatical from. My MC should and is going to be a part of my life that includes my wife and children and the expectations of family I have from my wife and my children are the same expectations I have from the brothers in my MC.

If you need to get away from your life by joining an MC then please pay attention to this: if you see me wearing any MC patch please don’t prospect with my club. We’re not fucking Club Med MC. We’re not a getaway. We are a brotherhood of bikers who live that life and that life is our life. ‘sides, I heard the Mickey Mouse MC was looking for new members so put down your helmet and put on those Mickey Mouse ears, ‘cause you’re a Sucka and you’re not MC material.

You’re not and never will be my brother.

Stay Sucka MC Free or Die.

 
“You may call for peace as loudly as you wish, but where there is no brotherhood there can in the end be no peace.” Max Lerner