The Track-n-Tackle Stop’n Rob
By Del Albright

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This article is really about freedom. While the title may be a mouthful with lots of innuendo meanings, it’s still about freedom – our freedom to recreate and enjoy our great outdoors.   But there’s a twist here that I’d like to share with you.

Convenience stores have been nicknamed “stop and rob” stores out of poor taste and a dose of reality.  They are a good target for robbers who stop and pull off a quick robbery – thus stop and rob.  These stores are like motorized recreation.

Motorized recreationists, like stop’n robs are easy targets. We’ve very visible.  We’re on every street (forest) corner.  There are lots of us.  We have lots of goodies inside – like our families, our dogs, and our gear.  We advertise well – we can even be loud and flashy. 

Heck, it’s a free country, right?  So we can do this responsibly and legally, and we should left alone to do our thing.  But in reality, we are prime targets to be robbed, by those who just don’t like us.

We are repeatedly robbed of our freedoms by willy-nilly outlandish proposals from radical protectionist groups. We are repeatedly robbed of our freedoms by arbitrary and capricious enforcement of existing laws and regulations, brought on by personal prejudice and discrimination.  It’s time to stop this!

This is where Track-n-Tackle comes in.

Freedom costs money to maintain.  It’s that simple.  Freedom ain’t free – you’ve heard this before.  Track-n-Tackle is about our motorized organizations that are out there fighting for us and our freedoms.

To “track” means to follow a path, keep up with, trace the route, and keep a record.  That is what land use and access folks do. That is what our organized recreation groups do.  They track what is happening to us, full time, in all areas where they can afford to spend time.  Afford?

Yea, afford.  That is where “tackle” comes in.  To “tackle” means to get a hold of, bring down, and wrap your arms around.  These folks and groups have to prioritize where they spend time and what things they tackle.  In organized recreation we don’t have enough money to tackle everything – nor do we have enough time and staff to tackle everything.  So let’s fix that RIGHT NOW.

You have to join everything you can afford to join, as many groups as you can afford to join, and do it now.  It’s membership dues and people belonging that will help us track-n-tackle these issues that threaten our freedom.  It’s memberships that will stop us from being stop’n robs. 

Start by joining the BlueRibbon Coalition and your state association.  Keep going from there.  Join up.